WOW! There were tons of attack/criticism articles on the web this week. I tend to enjoy attacks on M$, but there were tons of attacks on
- RMS (again)
- IBM “Why IBM won’t Do Desktop Linux” by Carla Schroder
- Ubuntu/Shuttleworth
It seems all one has to do to be attacked is successful and outspoken. IBM, RMS, and Shuttlewrth have all invested heavily in FLOSS with their personal capital. RMS started GNU/FSF and made an environment where it became possible to escape monopoly. IBM invested a $billion or more and provided manpower and clout with business to promote FLOSS where it works, which is almost everywhere. IBM uses GNU/Linux internally for much of its business as an example and because it makes sense.
IBM has never abandoned GNU/Linux on the desktop. Virtualized desktops are just the latest wave of adoption. IBM gets it. Some of their customers have tens of thousands of desktops and individual thick clients just do not work for them. Try managing a hundred or more thick clients and you will soon see that all those moving parts and software are a real pain and costly. GNU/Linux is a truly networked OS. It pays to use the networking features of GNU/Linux to maximize the advantages of GNU/Linux. Sutor has clarified his remarks, pointing out that quotes were snippets taken out of context.
“be certain of one thing: the Linux desktop is not to be discounted” - Bob Sutor
Ubuntu had its start in Africa. Canonical was helping schools secure labs in apalling conditions many years ago while folks on the other side of the digital divide were enjoying the good life. Africa is a special place and needs FLOSS to minimize costs and to maximize performance. Government, education and business are all heavy users of IT and burdened by huge problems of poverty, disease and ignorance. They do not need the problems that other OS brings. Criticising IBM or Canonical for bringing to Africa good things that are taken for granted elsewhere is a cruel joke.
RMS tends to call a spade a spade and he does not accept fluff as substance. M$’s posturing as being open to FLOSS is absurd. No matter how many millions they contribute to FLOSS, they are not a friend of FLOSS-loving people. Repeatedy they have shown a willingness to buy out the competition rather than to out-compete. RMS is not a great diplomat but neither is he often wrong.
I was surprised by Bob Sutor’s comment. Not that he would have that sentiment but that he would share it with so many people. There is no denying IBM’s contribution to the Linux kernel. And more members in the community should understand that IBM’s focus is not on the desktop. But many of us in the community are busting our collective asses trying to overcome the notion embedded in the minds of the populous that Microsoft is the PC. If IBM doesn’t want to help with that, fine, no problem, I understand. They have a business to run. So please, IBM, run your business but don’s stomp all over us while we try to do OUR business, it’s hard enough as it is.
IBM supplies what the customer wants. Many businesses are asking for more manageable and less costly desktops. IBM, Red Hat and Novell are supplying them with thin clients. While that is unusual for home users/small business it is seen as necessary in large deployments, some with thousands of PCs. That other OS has no place there. It is not efficient as a terminal server because there is no shared memory and it reuiqres twice as many servers to do the job. GNU/Linux thrirve as a teminal server since any desktop system + openSSH or NX can do the job very well. Businesses also want virtual desktops so that individual users can dial into that other OS or GNU/Linux transparently. That is not a pure solution but it is very practical and reduces dependence on that other OS and more importanatly reduces M$’s cash flow. Money is the source of their power and IBM and others are out-flanking M$. The one hard drive/one licence per seat model is shrinking. The OEMs will be able to make money selling hardware with GNU/Linux but it is not as easy. M$ was giving them nearly hald the rip-off. With GNU/Linux there is none of that but with that other OS as M$ is forced to compete on price the rip-off is being reduced anyway.
Christmas will be fun. To move large volumes, prices must be cut further. The more expensive thin notebooks will not outsell the GNU/Linux netbooks. This will dampen the adoption of “7″ which can only flourish on consumer machines. ARM will enter mainstream computing. Chuckle.