The beginning of the beginning of the end for Windows? I've been
thinking about looking into Linux again myself.
------------------------------------------------------
January 22, 2007
Group Formed to Support Linux as Rival to Windows
By STEVE LOHR
Linux, the free operating system, has gone from an intriguing experiment
to a mainstream technology in corporate data centers, helped by the
backing of major technology companies like I.B.M., Intel and
Hewlett-Packard, which sponsored industry consortiums to promote its
adoption.
Those same companies have decided that the time has come to consolidate
their collaborative support into a new group, the Linux Foundation,
which is being announced today. And the mission of the new organization
is help Linux, the leading example of the open-source model of software
development, to compete more effectively against Microsoft, the world’s
largest software company.
“It’s really a two-horse race now, with computing dominated by two
operating-system platforms, Linux and Windows,” said James Zemlin,
executive director of the Linux Foundation. “There are things that
Microsoft does well in terms of promoting Windows, providing legal
protection and standardizing Windows.”
He added that “the things that Microsoft does well are things we need to
do well — to promote, protect and standardize Linux.”
In data centers, both Linux and Microsoft have benefited from the shift
to data-serving computers powered by lower-cost microprocessors and
other industry-standard hardware using personal computer technology.
These machines, running Linux or Windows, have increasingly replaced
more costly, proprietary hardware, typically running Unix operating systems.
That shift to industry-standard hardware has helped makers of personal
computer chips like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, and makers of
PC-technology machines including Hewlett-Packard, I.B.M., Dell, NEC and
Fujitsu.
Traditional rivals of Microsoft in the software business, including
Oracle and I.B.M., have championed Linux to undermine an adversary and
have tweaked their database and other software programs to run on Linux.
Companies like Red Hat and Novell distribute Linux and charge companies
for technical support and maintenance.
So while Linux is distributed free, a sizable market has grown up around
it. The yearly sales of Linux-related hardware, software and services is
more than $14.5 billion, according to estimates by IDC, a research firm.
The new Linux organization is “a clear sign that we are going to
continue to work together,” said Daniel D. Frye, vice president for open
systems development at I.B.M.
There is vigorous competition among companies in the market for
hardware, software and services that work with Linux, Mr. Frye said. But
collaboration is also essential to move Linux technology forward, he
said, and avoid the kind of splintering of the marketplace that occurred
in the 1980s, when different companies supported different versions of
the Unix operating system.
The work of two other groups — the Open Source Development Labs and the
Free Standards Group — will be folded into the Linux Foundation, and
those organizations will no longer exist. Mr. Zemlin had been the head
of the Free Standards Group.
Stuart F. Cohen, the chief executive of the Open Source Development
Labs, said he was starting a new venture that would use the open-source
development model to build software applications tailored for individual
industries like financial services.
The Linux Foundation will pay salaries to Linus Torvalds, the creator of
Linux, and a few other key Linux programmers. That support had
previously come from the Open Source Development Labs.
In an e-mail message, Mr. Torvalds noted that some of the original
reasons for forming the Open Source Development Labs six years ago, like
“helping companies come to grips with Linux and open source in general,”
had in large part been addressed.
Referring to the new organization, he said, “The technical, legal and
standards issues do seem to be part of a bigger whole.”
Mr. Torvalds said his role would not change. “I work on the technology
itself, not any of the other issues,” he wrote. “I literally just sit in
my basement and do technical management. Nothing else.”
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
Similar Threads
Linear Mode
