Continuing our compilation of Linux-related blurbs in the latest
crop of year-end articles…
On 2002…
“Elsewhere in personal technology, change appeared only in
disguise. For example, Microsoft won its judicial battle with the
Justice Department, but its biggest threat actually may lie in such
open-source software as the Mozilla Web browser, the OpenOffice
productivity suite and the Linux operating system.“I installed the first two programs this summer for curiosity’s
sake but stuck with them out of satisfaction. OpenOffice opened
every Word document, Excel spreadsheet and PowerPoint presentation
in my e-mail since July without complaint — while insulating my PC
from Office macro viruses. Similarly, Mozilla gave me a Web without
pop-up ads, at the price of the rare site-specific glitch; better
yet, it’s already spawned both a couple of useful upgrades and
speedy offshoots, including Phoenix and Chimera…”
Washington Post: Copyright Concerns Lead the Year’s Big Fusses and
Flaps, by Rob Pegoraro
“Few of the ominous potential traumas reported in 2002 turned
out to have any real impact on most computer users. The Klez virus
infected some machines and spawned spam that continues to clutter
many e-mail inboxes. And the Linux Slapper worm made more work for
some systems administrators for a while…”
Wired:
So Many Holes, So Few Hacks, by Michelle Delio
“Seen that Fosters advert with the vacuum-loving robot? While
that might not (yet) be a reality, humanoid robots that could serve
a ‘useful’ (human job-threatening) purpose are developing rapidly.
The Linux robot with the catchy name, HRP-2P, is being designed for
the workplace as well as for entertainment. So if you already sit
in an open-plan office where everyone IMs instead of talking, just
think how much more fun it’ll be when half of them are
robots…”
ZDNet UK:
2002 Shows its Silly Side, by Laura Stobart
“Fortunately for competition, Linux, the rival open-source
operating system to Microsoft’s proprietary Windows, has gained
ground in the server market and is considered a serious threat to
Gates and Co., who are now busy plugging security holes in software
and trying to make sense of its much-hyped but ultimately confusing
Web-services strategy, centred around the company’s poorly
articulated dot-Net initiative…”
Toronto Star: Court Battles Stole ’02 Tech Limelight, by
Tyler Hamilton
On 2003…
“Linux, as we know it today, is an essentially European
phenomenon. It started in Finland. KDE is centered in Germany and
has close ties to Norwegian TrollTech. Mandrake is French, SuSE is
German, and European governments have moved toward and supported
Linux–and Open Source in general–faster than most governments
elsewhere. The U.S. is the center of commercial Linux activity
primarily because Red Hat and several other major distributions are
based here, but most surveys show a higher percentage of European
than U.S. developers writing Open Source software.“But a growing number of ‘next generation’ Linux development is
taking place in Asian countries, ranging from South Korea at one
end of the continent to India diagonally across the continent’s
map, with China rising hugely–in the Linux sense–right in the
middle of it all…”
NewsForge:
Asia Will be the Center of Linux Development in 2003, by
Robin Miller
“In the last two years, Linux has moved from a volunteer
organization making a second-rate Unix clone to a fast-developing
server platform in which all of the major enterprise players,
including good Microsoft partners such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM,
Intel, and SAP, are investing. Microsoft lacks a coherent strategy
for combating this product. As the company knows, from its own
successes with Internet Explorer and Windows Media, free product
tends to take the wind out of commercial business models (as
Netscape and RealNetworks can attest). Although Linux has a ways to
go before it equals Windows, the gap is narrowing. Microsoft needs
to keep distance between Windows and Linux to justify price
premiums. Hopes that the Linux community would fragment are not
being realized, at least in 2003. In addition, the Linux community
is showing renewed interest in the desktop; any Linux gains there
will tarnish Microsoft’s crown jewels, the desktop OS and Office,
which generate virtually all of its profits…”
Directions on
Microsoft: Microsoft’s Top 10 Challenges for 2003
“Many of the budget PC offers–like LG’s ‘My PC’–come with
pre-loaded Linux, thus paring off about Rs. 3000 from the total
cost. Indian PC makers like Zenith and HCL have also announced
aggressive pricing in recent days and if there is no sharp rise in
the price of memory, Rs. 20,000 may well buy a full-fledged
multimedia machine with a contemporary specification, in the near
future…”
The Hindu:
Hi-Tech Gadgets May Become More Affordable in 2003, by
Anand Parthasarathy
Related Story:
Year-End
2002 Digest: Looking Back and Looking Ahead(Dec 25, 2002)