Linux at 20 ... is it invisible, ubiquitous?

[dud]

I considered posting this in the Operating Systems forum but this is less about releases and install issues and more about history. Would appreciate thoughts/feelings from Linux users ...



http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/08/25/linux.20/index.html?iref=obnetwork



An excerpt:

"Thursday marks 20 years since Linus Torvalds announced on a Web bulletin board that he'd begun working on a free computer operating system. In that message, Torvalds described Linux as "just a hobby, won't be big and professional."

Now, two decades later, that market breakthrough doesn't seem any more attainable. And yet while the Linux name and its penguin mascot failed to go big, the software they embody is more pervasive today than ever.

Linux's skeleton and spirit live on inside another familiar, adorable mascot: the green robot that represents Google's Android operating system. That software, which powers 43% of smartphones worldwide, many tablets and the Google TV set-top boxes, was developed with Linux at its core. Google's Chrome OS for laptops is also based on Linux."

 

[Numenorean]

http://forums.anandtech.com/forumdisplay.php?f=11

 

[HAL9000]

Cool story bro

 

[ShawnD1]

Fact: a large percentage of linus users are pedophiles. It makes sense because they like things that are not fully developed.

 

[Loop2kil]

Fact: a large percentage of linus users are pedophiles. It makes sense because they like things that are not fully developed.

Ouch!!

 

[GTaudiophile]

Fact: a large percentage of linus users are pedophiles. It makes sense because they like things that are not fully developed.

Haha.

Doesn't Linux also form the basis of Apple's OS X? Or is that Unix?

 

[blackdogdeek]

we have linux servers in our datacenters.

 

[busydude]

Linux as a whole improved a lot since 2004(That is when I started dabbling in it). Driver support has massively improved.. almost all the major manufacturers are offering Linux support these days. Personally, I would choose a Linux based OS over any other.

 

[lxskllr]

Haha.

Doesn't Linux also form the basis of Apple's OS X? Or is that Unix?

FreeBSD.

I like Linux cause I'm free to use it how I choose too. Want to boot it from a flash drive? No problem. Something missing? I can add it. Don't like the desktop environment? I can change it. Linux is the only freedom I have in life, so it tastes particularly good.

 

[JD50]

Everyone uses Linux, they just don't know it. Real work gets done on Linux, Windows can keep the desktop market as far as I'm concerned.

 

[JD50]

I don't have time to read the entire article, but I noticed in the graphic at the top that they didn't include server market share... Are they just focusing on end users or something? If so, it could be argued that everyone that uses the internet is using Linux.

 

[busydude]

If so, it could be argued that everyone that uses the internet is using Linux.

Every time someone says that.. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs will kill a puppy and drink Horse semen.

 

[Wyndru]

Isn't Novell doing something with linux? I know we are switching over to a windows environment because they are changing something on the Novell side to SUSE or something. I don't know the details, I just know the decision was made to migrate soon and our network admin is starting to learn all about active directory and windows servers.

 

[busydude]

Novell is considered a backstabber to Linux and FOSS.. due to its relations with Microsoft.

 

[SonicIce]

linux community project members are too busy arguing with each other that they havent gotten anything done in 20 years

 

[JD50]

linux community project members are too busy arguing with each other that they havent gotten anything done in 20 years

I hope this is a joke. Linux is thriving more than ever these days. I wouldn't expect a help desk monkey or high schooler to understand this, but go ask any real IT professional and they'll agree.

Edit - That wasn't directed at you Soniclce or meant as a put down to anyone else, just saying that those in the industry know, most others don't.

 

[Blackjack200]

Don't all the Google server farms run Linux?

 

[Modelworks]

It might not own the desktop but it owns the embedded market. It controls just about every DVR, media player, bluray players, televisions, cell phone, on the planet.

 

[bfdd]

linux is great it's just not for everyone.

 

[Spikesoldier]

It might not own the desktop but it owns the embedded market. It controls just about every DVR, media player, bluray players, televisions, cell phone, on the planet.

this. it would be laughable for MS to try to develop a bloated, unstable replacement.

 

[SonnyDaze]

linux is great it's just not for everyone.

Yup. I started using it a couple years ago. Like the idea of being able to try out the different distros.

 

[SonicIce]

I hope this is a joke. Linux is thriving more than ever these days. I wouldn't expect a help desk monkey or high schooler to understand this, but go ask any real IT professional and they'll agree.

Edit - That wasn't directed at you Soniclce or meant as a put down to anyone else, just saying that those in the industry know, most others don't.

i mean i wish they could come up with a real Windows replacement. some of them are cool for a little while then you eventually go back to Windows.

 

[JD50]

i mean i wish they could come up with a real Windows replacement. some of them are cool for a little while then you eventually go back to Windows.

Again, that's only true for desktops.

 

[ShawnD1]

this. it would be laughable for MS to try to develop a bloated, unstable replacement.

Xbox's OS works pretty good

 

[Apple Of Sodom]

Again, that's only true for desktops.

I work in the medical IT field. Everything I work with has Windows under the hood. Most electronic medical record systems require Microsoft Server, desktops require windows. Hell, even a lot of the medical software itself (such as the platform that Siemens uses to run its CT/MR/Cath lab/etc) uses Windows. Same with a lot of the X-ray equipment I install...all runs with MS.

Linux is in a lot of devices, servers, etc. But it is silly to state that it is objectively better than MS products and that MS products are only used for desktop applications.