By Brian Proffitt
Managing-Editor-on-Vacation
There is a gross injustice perpetrated on an annual basis, the
neglect of a special date that I feel must be corrected.
I refer to of course, July 1, which marks the start of the new
half of the year.
Oh sure, January 1 gets all the hype, the glam, the parties–but
what does July 1 get? Bupkis. Is it fair that we fail to note that
we are halfway around the Sun on this date? Is July 1 to be forever
overshadowed by Canada Day? Or Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region Establishment Day?
I say no!
To right this injustice, let’s take a look back at the past six
months and rejoice in all the good news that has happened.
Some really good distros are out. C’mon,
really, have you seen some of the new stuff coming out lately?
Xandros, Ubuntu, openSUSE, to name just a few? Don’t forget about
simplyMEPIS and Fedora. Well, maybe Fedora, it’s gotten a bit stale
of late. These distros, and quite a few others, are ready to play.
We can hand them to anyone–our mothers, our second cousins once
removed, you name it–and they can be installed and ready to run in
minutes.
Don’t even get me started on the apps.
OpenOffice.org? Still rocks. Firefox? I covered that last week (and
I still think Internet Explorer should be destroyed in the name of
humanity). Evolution? Nice to have a e-mail client that won’t open
every single virus that finds its way into your mailbox. Google’s
ports (native or WINE) gave desktop Linux a nice boost. Even on the
server side, there are more configuration tools out there than
ever, making it simpler to set up and run the good stuff, like
Apache.
Proprietary companies are stalling. You don’t
hear very much about Software Assurance programs these days, or how
Unix is better than Linux. Oh yes, there’s the opportunity to “Get
the Facts,” but customers who have X dollars to spend
right now are faced with an interesting choice: a product from
Redmond that costs 1.3X or an open source product that
costs 0.7X for product and support. Gee, that’s a toughy.
What we are left with is a sudden urge to schmooze with the open
source concept. But don’t be fooled. All of this talk of
interoperability and sharing is a holding action until they figure
out what to try next. Believe it.
Darl McBride hasn’t said anything goofy lately.
Of course, the big reason for that might be that his company’s case
is falling to pieces. Finally.
So, a few of the highlights of the past six months, on this New
Half Year’s Eve. What’s next? Likely more of the same, as more
developers than ever are shifting to work on Linux, both the
platform and the applications. And, not to beat a dead horse, but I
still can’t shake the feeling that someone’s going to buy Canonical
and pull in Ubuntu. I still have my money on Sun, though you could
make a good case for Oracle, too.
Let’s wait and see on January 1, that “special” holiday.
Program Note: At the urging of family, collegues, and
various mental health agencies, starting today and through next
week I will be on vacation, returning on July 10. To observe
Independence Day in the US, Linux Today will be inactive
on July 3 and 4, resuming normal operations on July 5. Where ever
you are, and whatever holiday you celebrate, may you and yours be
safe and well. Happy Half New Year!
Peace,
BKP