Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> ____/ Mark Kent on Wednesday 08 August 2007 16:46 : \____
>
>> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>> Linux is gaining ground fast. Believe it?
>>>
>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>>| In my area ASUS just started replacing Windows laptop stickers with: made
>>>| for Red Flag Linux! Although Ubuntu is much better- from what I can see
>>>| ASUS laptops no longer say (for Windows) here in China! Incredible. This is
>>>| the first gradual (at least partial) step I believe. However they aren't
>>>| installing Linux just yet. Vista is a flop and there is a strong open
>>>| source undercurrent here that even the (sheep like) laptop sellers can't
>>>| catch.
>>> `----
>>>
>>> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=519523
>>>
>>
>> Wow - the first signs of overt change. I wonder how long the Microsoft
>> board will be in post now? I don't give them twelve months, myself.
>> They've had over 10 years to work out a sustainable strategy for dealing
>> with free software in a way which could have kept them in business, and
>> have singularly failed to change a single aspect of the way they do
>> business. The board should be changed and a new one brought in.
>
> They could take a lesson from Sun who had a profit boost. They grasped the open
> source mindset before it was too late and I cannot say that I resent Sun. It
> just fights for mind share now and it won over Michael Larabel (and Ian
> Murdock).
I spent some time with Simon Phipps last year, he was a good, capable
chap, understood the open-source world well, and had an extremely
well-considered plan to get Sun firmly entrenched into the open-source
world, with a good, solid, internal open-source culture.
I imagine, considering the quality of his plan, that things have come a
long way since then, certainly, the relicensing of Java was important,
and the licensing changes being discussed around Solaris are very
positive.
Sun could, if they wanted, steal a march here by licensing their OS &
kernel all with GPLv3 - it would make them a lot of friends at the FSF,
and would provide an interesting alternative to Linux, which seems to be
locked in GPLv2-land in some kind of time-warp.
>
>>> Are we finally seeing the year of the Linux desktop?
>>>
>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>>| This past month has seen a flurry activity from a number of players in the
>>>| Linux desktop space. Red Hat, Suse, Ubuntu, Dell, Lenovo and even Intel
>>>| white box system builders are getting into the act.
>>> `----
>>>
>>> http://www.itwire.com/content/view/13923/
>>
>> yes, we are.
>
> Depends on definition of course. I blogged about it in the weekend, before the
> Lenovo announcement and Dell's expansion (maybe this one too).
>
It's been on its way for some time. It was about getting a few pieces
in place at the same time, and I won't think of all of them, but it
needed:
* office suite (ODF/OO.org plus Abiword/Gnumeric)
* Browser (firefox, konqueror, ephiphany)
* IM client (gaim)
* Video conferencing (jabber/google)
* email support (google or local servers)
* email client (mozilla project, mahogany etc.)
* pretty desktop (KDE, Gnome, Enlightenment)
* special effects (compiz)
* movie/film player (mplayer, totem, xine.)
* music player (xmms, mplayer, etc.)
* windows fileserver support ( samba)
* printing (cups)
* bittorrent
* DVD/CD ripping & authoring
Plus:
* flash player (several sites)
* real player (bbc)
* remote access tools (ssh, vnc etc.)
* easy admin
* no viruses
* highly secure
Oh yeah, and some games...
Then, really, there is little other reason why 99.9% of people use a PC
at all. In fact, for most people, the browser and office suite are
probably enough.
Ubuntu can do all of that, but then, so can my N800, too.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
|
