osOpinion: Serving Up Desktop Envy

[ Thanks to Kelly McNeill for this link. ]

The desktop, maintains this column, is only a secondary concern for computing in the near future: embedded technology is on the rise and if Linux can capture this market, other aspects of computing will fall into line behind it.

"...There are a few lessons to be learned from the mainframe story. If Linux developers choose to go head-to-head with Microsoft in a desktop war, they will be allowing Microsoft to set the agenda and choose the battleground.

The fight will be long and bloody, and victory anything but certain. But looking around, we can already see signs that the desktop will be marginalized by newer, emergent technologies. More computer power is being shipped embedded in appliances like personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones than in PCs nowadays, and the gap is accelerating.

A rapidly growing array of appliances are coming to market with embedded computing power."

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