Consumer Darwinism and the Rise of FOSS
,----[ Quote ]
| One of the recurring themes that keeps popping up in the Linux community is
| this pressing need to get Linux on the desktop. I have often pondered in the
| past that such a goal is indeed worthy--once we actually figure out just
| exactly what "desktop" means.
|
| Watching the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) coverage this week, it was once
| again hammered home that in a very real sense, it doesn't matter
| what "desktop" means. The true opportunity for Linux and the rest of the
| free/open source software (FOSS) developers and business people is to
| anticipate what the customers want and get in front of their needs in time to
| deliver the goods. The term "desktop" is, I believe, an anachronistic term
| held over from the days when one company had the means and the chutzpah to
| dictate to the market what the customer needed, instead of the other way
| around.
|
| [...]
|
| Look at the events of CES, or even the consumer technology news in the months
| leading up to 2008. Over and over, we see announcements of popular computing
| devices: laptops , UMPCs, inexpensive PCs at Wal-Mart, smartphones... all
| running Linux. More importantly, all running Linux, and no one cares. Because
| these systems work.
|
| [...]
|
| It is the curse and the blessing of ubiquity that's being bestowed on Linux.
| The news from CES made that abundantly clear.
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http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2008-01-11-017-26-OP-DV
Four Areas That Show Why Consumer Tech Show Matters To Business IT
,----[ Quote ]
| Ultramobile PCs: UMPCs came out in droves at CES, from the likes of
| Hewlett-Packard, iRiver, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, Toshiba, and Wibrain. National
| Taiwan University showed a 1-GHz Linux machine prototype that's as small as a
| smartphone. Microsoft announced the Origami Experience 2.0, an update to its
| user interface for UMPCs, and Intel released new chips built for them.
|
| UMPCs were out last year, but they haven't caught on. The latest models may
| have the selection, power, and variety--from bare-bones Linux-plus-browser
| versions to ones running Windows Vista Premium--to fill far more business
| needs, especially in mobile jobs where laptops are too bulky and smartphones
| aren't powerful enough. Maybe combined with a tiny projector?
`----
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205602185
Yesterday:
Four billion embedded systems shipped in '06
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3686249103.html
Related:
PCs being pushed aside in Japan
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| The PC's role in Japanese homes is diminishing, as its once-awesome monopoly
| on processing power is encroached by gadgets such as smart phones that act
| like pocket-size computers, advanced Internet-connected game consoles,
| digital video recorders with terabytes of memory.
`----
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071104/ap_on_hi_te/bye_bye_pcs
Research and Markets: Symbian and Linux Enjoy the Highest Penetration in the
Japanese Smartphone Market
,----[ Quote ]
| Symbian and Linux enjoy the highest penetration in the Japanese smartphone
| market and appear to be the beneficiaries in any expansion of smartphone use
| there.
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http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080102005331&newsLang=en
http://tinyurl.com/34ns9q
After the Desktop -- What?
,----[ Quote ]
| I would suggest that the open source community should stop obsessing
| with the battle for the desktop, and start focusing on the battle for
| the platform that will replace it. As I have said before, the day
| will soon come when the notion of having to go to a particular
| machine on a particular room every time you need access to
| information or computer power will be as obsolete as the notion
| of having to go to the hand pump over the well in the front
| yard every time you need water.
`----
http://trevors-trinkets.blogspot.com/2007/02/after-desktop-what.html
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