The end of the Gregorian calendar year brings out a great many
year-in-review and year-ahead stories at the various media outlets.
What struck Linux Today was that a lot of them we found mentioned
Linux or open source, even if it was only in passing.
Rather than linking to all of these stories separately, we have
gathered all of the pertinent excerpts from these stories in one
place here in this special digest article. If some were missed, let
us know–we will have time to do this again before the end of the
year.
As Linux Today closes down the article feed for the Christmas
holiday, feel free to use the Talkbacks in this article to to voice
your opinion on what was the most important story of 2002. What do
you think the direction of Linux and Open Source will be in
2003?
And now, this batch of year-end articles.
On 2002…
“On the Linux front, there were signs of fissure among backers
of the insurgent operating system, with some lining up behind the
UnitedLinux distribution and Red Hat, the distributor with the
largest installed base, looking on. The success of Linux requires
consistency. It’s up to the Linux community to maintain it.”
eWeek: Where
We Stand on IT’s Top Issues
“2002 saw an increasing interest in the operating systems debate
deepen as a Microsoft vrs Open Source eclipsed all other
stories…”
ZDNet Australia: 2002 – The Year That Was
On 2003…
“No one is denying that Linux has staked a claim in enterprise
computing this year.“Combined with Unix, Linux ties with Microsoft Windows on
operating-system shipments, said Dan Kusnetzky, an IDC analyst. On
the business side, companies are using Linux for various tasks
including printing and routing e-mail messages.“On the consumer side, Wal-Mart sells PCs that run on the
Lindows platform, an operating system that is supposed to combine
the cost-savings of Linux with the ‘ease of a Windows
environment…'”
Wired:
IDC: Tech Bucks, Hack Threats Up, by Elisa Batista
“In 2003 the big in tech will continue to get bigger.
Comparatively healthy telecoms will scoop up assets of the losers,
and companies with lots of cash across the sector will buy devalued
outfits in anticipation of a recovery. The services game will
become more competitive as HP-Compaq and IBM focus on selling
hardware at breakeven prices to fuel services. Microsoft will
resume its forward march across a broad swath of software even
though its desktop grip will weaken as Linux starts to encroaching
overseas…”
BusinessWeek: Tech in 2002: A Time of Tumult, by Alex
Salkever
“Open-source software has steadily moved from the preserve of
elite aficionados to a true contender in the enterprise. Technology
Editor Peter Coffee says, ‘This could be a year in which everything
from the desktop and server operating system to the ubiquitous
office productivity suite’ becomes a newly competitive market. That
competition would be good for the users and industry as a
whole…”
eWeek: Highs, Lows of 2002 Set the Stage for
2003, by Eric Lundquist