What’s Next For Linux? Unifying The OS Amid Steady Change

“Two forces in particular are driving changes to Linux. One is a
push to develop Linux into a standard, more predictable platform
for developers and users. The other is to leverage Linux, and open
source in general, as mediums through which innovation gets
delivered to users.

“Those who create Linux distributions have a massive task ahead:
taking the myriad open source offerings out there and pulling them
into a unified whole. That’s certainly a goal for Ubuntu Linux,
says Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, which provides
commercial support for the popular Linux variant. Ubuntu 8.10 was
specifically assembled as the next step toward unification. Among
the improvements with this in mind: automation that lets users
install unsupported or commercial handlers for multimedia
codecs.”

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