Twenty Years of Linux

[sqlpython]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ocq6_3- ... r_embedded

[Fitzcarraldo]

Yeah, and I quite liked Jim Zemlin's statement:

I think we just don't care that much [about Microsoft] anymore. They used to be our big rival, but now it's kind of like kicking a puppy.

Linux has won the war already in the mobile market with Android. The prediction is that it will sweep the market: Android to dominate worldwide smartphone market, Gartner says.

Pity about the desktop, but I reckon Linux is making inroads there and things are changing with 'the Cloud', so the next decade is going to be very interesting.

[sqlpython]

To win the Desktop market the strategy has to be that of including the Software with the Hardware.. a` la the Android.
As Microsoft has done with PCs over these many Decades. That is their secret to Desktop dominance. People by nature are lazy and will use the OS that came with the Box.

[Fitzcarraldo]

I think it's more than that, sqlpython, because Android has overtaken established mobile OSs in a very competitive area. Look at the surge in demand for smartphones running Android while smartphones running other OSs remain on the shelves. The latter phones also come with an OS pre-loaded, but people choose Android over those.

It's a combination of issues, but some factors that have propelled Android to the forefront in such a short time are: it works very well; is easy to use; is pleasant on the eye; is given to manufacturers free by Google; has the Google brand name and backing behind it; has the Google Android Marketplace, which is less controlled than Apple's equivalent for the iPhone; comes on smartphones that are cheaper than Apple's iPhone; is perceived as cool and new; has some killer apps that are free; runs Flash; is easy for developers to produce third-party apps. I had absolutely no interest in mobile phones (including the iPhone) until Android appeared and I saw what it could do (I had a low-end mobile until recently and regarded a mobile as a necessary evil). Now, with my HTC Desire, I'm like a kid with a toy. In the last couple of weeks alone, three colleagues have also bought one. Android is the right product at the right time.

[sqlpython]

Now, with my HTC Desire, I'm like a kid with a toy. In the last couple of weeks alone, three colleagues have also bought one. Android is the right product at the right time.

Cool! A nice package, I took a look at the specs.
I too have been using an Android..A Motorola Backflip for about 1 year now and I like it. I used Palm from 1999 but had continual unreliable syncing of Contacts/Mail/Calendar.. Now with Android I have gone to Google Apps. Contacts/Gmail and Calendar are always in sync with Thunderbird Addons.

Your HTC Desire has some nice features which I don't have like 3G and the SD Flash card..good luck with It.

[Fitzcarraldo]

I was sad to read today that Groklaw is shutting up shop: Groklaw Articles Ending on May 16th. No doubt the 20th anniversary of Linux got Pamela Jones thinking, but the main reason is, to quote her: "the crisis SCO initiated over Linux is over, and Linux won." And, with respect to the mobile market, she writes:

Android has won. No matter what tricks Microsoft may pull going forward, the world knows now that when there was free choice in the marketplace, people chose Android, which runs on Linux, over Microsoft's phone. Nothing they do can change that.

Happy Birthday, Linux, you've come of age.

[sqlpython]

I was one who bought Caldera Stock about 1997 when I though I was supporting a LINUX effort. I hung on to them right through being assigned SCO stocks.
Sad Times

I was duped.
Those times are thankfully in the past.