State of The Linux Union

Who are the new players, and what do they have to offer?

Looking back a year, it is hard not to notice many new options for installing Linux in your enterprise. If we look at development pre and post 2000 we see some new companies which have taken Linux to a new level. That is the newbie level. Not dumbed down, but rather just made friendlier for all those people who are used to MS Windows® products. Since so many users are comfortable with that "look and feel" that it is a standard now, which has to be emulated or be closely familiar to be accepted.

Jump back a few years, when we had the first hard core developers offering bare-bones OS Linux products. Sure, they were distinguished by different apps available, but on the whole were all command line interfaces. The original developers, Red Hat, Slackware, Debian, Suse, and Caldera have labored to establish the credibility of Linux, but not its popularity. The server market, where Linux has made the most inroads is populated by IT people who can understand unix commands. To increase the popularity of Linux, other companies have had to take a fresh approach to bringing it to the masses. This means a change to the consumer market, and the desktop for average users. To grow the developers need to create apps like games and business utilities for Linux, and make the OS almost transparent.

Today some companies are taking the basic Linux product and making it more palatable for more users. They are building their appas on the shoulders of giants, and hopefully understand the previous work that went into creating Linux -in general. Although self-serving, by stepping up to the plate with development investment has helped all developers. The DOJ case also highlighted the opportunity for new developers, who have been hampered in getting the product out in the past. The landscape is changing everyday.

So if the SME and SOHO markets are what will fuel growth after the b2b server market, we can see things heating up. This market will embrace a low-cost stable operating system that they can customize and have enough apps to make life easy. The gulf between what the traditional suppliers and the Linux suppliers is closing. The changeover to a new OS will take time, but as companies like Vmware and other make porting possible, investments will be saved. As more apps become available to Linux users the changeover will be complete. I would guess that by 2002 at least 20% of desktops and other computing devices (like Tivo, and handhelds) will run an open source, Linux related system under the app.

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