Linux doesn't have a CEO. Consequently, there's no annual keynote hosted by a charismatic alpha male. But if it did, and if there were a conference covering the first half of this year, the first speech would start with three words: "Linux is winning".
Firstly, a market research firm in the US called The NPD Group revealed that sales of Google's Android platform overtook those of Apple's iPhone in the first quarter of 2010, propelling itself into second place behind the waning RIM.
Android is becoming increasingly competitive, spanning both the smartphone and the emerging tablet markets, with devices from Dell and Archos already available. This might be why Apple started a patent infringement lawsuit against HTC, using many of its Android-based phones as physical exhibits in its litigation.
Secondly, Google announced its intention to open source the VP8 video codec. This was acquired when it bought On2 earlier in the year and it will be used alongside Vorbis and the MKV container to create Google's WebM video format. This is vitally important for Linux.
The nascent H.264 format, as used by Apple and many HTML5 video streams, is encumbered by patents, and current open-source implementations live under the shadow of legislation. VP8 and WebM have the potential to match it for quality, and while WebM will undoubtedly attract similar litigious trouble, having an umbrella the size of Google should satisfy many Linux distributions, especially when Mozilla, Opera and Adobe have already pledged their support.
Programme for Government
Finally, the UK's new coalition government has published its Programme for Government. There are two points in the section on Transparency that are great news for free software. One states, "We will create a level playing field for open-source software," while the other adds, "We will ensure that all data published by public bodies is published in an open and standardised format, so that it can be used easily and with minimal cost by third parties."
If these promises come true, it will transform attitudes to open-source software and Linux, and hopefully open the door for its use within government and schools, two areas where it's ideal.
Many of us used to think that for Linux to be judged a success, it had to be installed and running on more desktop computers than Microsoft Windows. And there are great swathes of Linux users who still feel the same way. But the world of computing has changed.
There's more than one way of judging the success of something that started as just a good idea. Windows, Linux and OS X are survivors. They've lasted this long because they exist within their own ecosystems.
Linux, for example, is fed by a curious mixture of enterprise investment, embedded hardware vendors and a community brimming full of zealous commitment. There's a low-cost threshold to entry and a subsystem that maintains itself with very little investment. It's these factors that have shaped how it looks, how it feels and how it's operated.
The ecosystems inhabited by both Microsoft and Apple are equally well-adapted to their environments. The former is the domain of the utilitarians, offering straight functionality for an up-front price. The latter is an increasingly important fusion of fashion and function. But things have changed.
The borders between the ecosystems have become indistinct. Apple has surpassed Microsoft in market value, winning thousands of new fans through it's no-fuss interfaces and lower prices. There's a shift in the balance of power.
Less free and open
And thanks to Google, Linux is becoming less free and less open, proving that in the new markets where it's having the most commercial success, it's becoming more like Apple. ROMs are encrypted and need to be rooted for user-hacking, third-party applications have to be sold through a single vendor and personal information is held in the cloud by a sole provider.
If Linux wants a taste of similar success, it might find it if it makes similar concessions to a user's freedom.
But then we'd have failed. The Linux ecosystem would have become too polluted, bogged down by sponsored kernel additions, paid-for support and short life cycles. It may be a commercial success, but no longer an active one.
Our hypothetical CEO might make further compromises, and make judgements against the interest of Linux users. Which is exactly why we don't have a CEO, and exactly why the success of open-source software is so difficult to judge using the same language as its competitors.
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First published in PC Plus Issue 297
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Your comments (3) Click to add a new comment
nitrofan
September 27th 2010
3. I fell for the whole Linux & Open is better argument hook line and sinker a while back; I decided I was no longer prepared to be yet another source of revenue for big bad Bill and his evil Windows world domination program.
So after an initial unsuccessful flirtation with Ubuntu, I broke the “natural laws of Linux” and paid for a copy of SUZE with all the “personal information” issues that entails (it is worth noting that your local supermarket will hold more personal information about you than any OS provider ever will)
Anyway as a complete “know nothing newbie” I thought it a small price to pay, especially as I believed I was getting three months pro tech support.
And I would therefore avoid the inconsistent advice, poorly written syntax, (given for free but incorrectly) and worst of all the condescending remarks “man EVERYONE knows that surely” I had received on the totally misnamed “Help Forums” When I could not get my initial installation of Ubuntu to behave properly.
Anyway my box of SUZE arrived, I wiped my machine clear of all traces of Ubuntu and installed away. All went well the SUZE installer held my Virgin hand all the way,and made me feel safe loved and confident.
In fact everything was great until I tried to play a DVD no sound! I contacted the help desk no solution, but plenty of reasoning why “It should just work” did I have the right drivers? A reply of OK How do I find out? Brought little assistance just some vague virtual hand waving, and a suggestion I look in the “help Forum” Oh Oh I thought here we go again!
And I was right, I played around for a full 14 days going to various “repositories” or “suppositories” (what ever they were called is actually irrelevant none cleared the blockage) installing “the best FREE and OPEN sound apps in the universe” I tried command line, installers the lot NONE of which worked!
I finally came to my senses and sat down and thought “The whole point of this device is to make my life easier correct?
It used to do that, but I was being bombarded by the tech info sites into believing I was perhaps missing the point of computing,and allowing evil forces access to my personal details, that’s why I changed.
Well I can assure the undecided if your PC works and makes your life better regardless of what operating system it runs. Then you already have the point of computing sorted! so don’t change!
So MY response to the proposal is Google making Linux Less and Less open? Is maybe, IS Linux becoming more and more usable as a result? As an owner of an Android handset I would say yes it is 100%.
It is exactly the Linux communities obsession with being open and uncontrolled that will keep it at the margins of global computing, Computers need order to work well, and users want computers that work well and make their lives better. If they don’t they simply have no reason to exist.
So perhaps the question we should be asking is
Do we need consistency in the form of benevolent dictators to make IT work?
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bkulasse
August 8th 2010
2. definitely...!! it's the best OS i've seen in this world..
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timi92
August 8th 2010
1. unbelievable article. most interesting thing ive read in weeks
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