“There’s some disagreement in the community on just who that
target audience is. The big commercial vendors like to hit the
‘low-hanging fruit’: the few but massive enterprise players in the
world who stand to gain from Linux use and–let’s face it–generate
the most revenue dollars. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s
the call for the ubiquitous ‘Desktop’–the be-all, end-all
interface that everyone, including our grandmothers, can use
instead of the hated Windows products.“Somehow, one would think, there should be a compromise between
these two extremes.“For a long time, my position on the best target market for
Linux and Open Source growth has been somewhere in that
middle-place. Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), I believe,
stand to gain the most from a solid Linux-based stack of apps.
Unlike enterprises, IT costs for licenses are a big part of their
budgets, so they could use a break on the expense. And, unlike
consumer users, they don’t need every gimmick and gimcrack
application to support every single device or esoteric need.“SMBs need something streamlined, fast, powerful, and
inexpensive to get the job done. Sounds like open source software
to me…”