thad05@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <thad05@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Nortel considers Linux desktops for its staff
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Nortel CIO Steve Bandrowczak, who joined the Canadian telecoms and network
>> | equipment vendor last July, said "more and more CIOs are looking at Linux
>> | desktop for reasons of TCO" and argued that the technology "is receiving the
>> | same level of attention today as when Linux started on servers."
>> `----
>>
>> http://www.mbtmag.com/articleXml/LN731846314.html
>
> This is what I've been saying for years. The desktop Linux adoption
> curve looks like the server curve, just lagging it by some number of
> years. During the first 7 years of its life, very few people took
> server Linux seriously. Numerous pundits repeatedly declared it
> doomed. Now, nobody would dare say something so obviously stupid.
>
> But of course now the same things are said about desktop Linux,
> often by the same pundits. If you go back far enough, you can find
> people saying the same thing about the Internet, desktop PCs, and
> just about every new technology that came along and transformed an
> industry.
>
> I won't make any predictions about if or when Linux will 'take over'
> the desktop... but I wouldn't rule it out either. We've seen bigger
> tech transformations over the last couple of decades. At the very
> least, Linux will grab a much more noticeable slice of the desktop
> over the next few years.
>
The desktop is changing, though. Mobility is the biggest driver for
many of today's "office" workers. Most people under 35 don't even have
a landline at home, they just use a mobile. The market for PCs in the
environment is not going to grow, instead, it'll shrink, but the
mobility space will grow.
Same issues apply to workspaces; offices are far more fluid and
adaptable than they were in the 1990s. People work in all kinds of
remote locations and places. Simple applications and easy connectivity
are *far* more important than office suites with a billion options and
a heavyweight back-end and gui.
Even for fixed desktop spaces, such as call centres (at least for as
long as they remain "building" based, rather than remote working ones),
a bunch of PS3s will probably offer a quieter and cheaper option than a
bunch of PCs would. Other alternatives involve using something like
this intel-based Asus machine I'm currently on. It has two video
channels to two ports. X can support two independent screens, with two
keyboards and two mice all working separately. That would halve the PC
cost (yet again).
I see little future for the traditional desktop in a world where
mobility and appliances are setting the expectations of the upcoming
generation.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
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| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
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