- PlayStation 3 Sony will sell separately an extra Hard Disk with Linux OS pre-loaded on the system. Due to the large penetration of the PlayStation platform, (200 million units worldwide in 10 years) Linux will have a great penetration possibility with PS3. {Link without Title}
- Ernie Ball , the guitar string manufacturers known for their famous ''Super Slinky'' guitar strings, have used Linux as their desktop operating system since 2000. {Link without Title}
- Google , the search engine, uses several different Linux distributions on the desktop and a customised version of Red Hat Linux on over 100,000 servers {Link without Title} .
- Novell is currently undergoing a migration from Windows to Linux. Of their 5500 employees, 50% were successfully migrated as of April, 2006. This is expected to rise to 80% by November. {Link without Title}
- Australian hotel booking site Wotif.com migrated from Windows to Linux servers in order to keep up with the growth of their business.[http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/software/soa/Migration_news_Windows_to_Linux_and_vice_versa/0,39023769,39248795-4,00.htm]
- 1983 (September): GNU project was announced publicly
- 1991 (September): first version of the Linux Kernel was released to the Internet
- 1999: Linux is the most popular Internet serving OS, counted by domain name, with 28.5% of market ( Zoebelein )
- 2001: Linux in use by 35.5% of Japanese corporations ( Impress Corporation )
- 2001 (second quarter): Linux server unit shipments at 15% annual growth rate IDC
- 2002 (July): Linux and Microsoft (Windows XP and CE combined) have 30% share each in terms of developer use for future embedded projects ( EDC ).
- 2002: 25% of servers and 2.8% of desktop computers running Linux ( IDC )
- 2002: Linux in use by 64.3% of Japanese corporations
- 2002 (October): 59% of developers expect to write Linux applications in the next year (EDC)
- 2004 (second quarter): Linux server unit shipments at 40% annual growth rate (IDC)
- 2004: Linux shipped on approximately 50% of the worldwide server Blade units, and 20% of all Rack-optimized servers. (IDC {Link without Title} )
- 2004: Linux deployments in retail increased 34 percent over 2003 ( IHL )
- 2004 (February): 1.1 million developers in North America working on F/OSS projects
As an indicator of the increasing interest in Linux, it can be observed from Linux distribution tracking site Distro Watch that page views of each of their pages regarding specific Linux distributions has increased significantly over the period 2002-2006. In 2002, the most popular distribution page on the site received 274 hits per day, 704 in 2003, 1202 in 2004, 1503 in 2005 and 2705 in April 2006, an average increase of 77% per year.
The primary driving forces behind Linux adoption can be summarized as:
- Security
- Reputation
Other reasons cited are:
- Open source - it is visible what is being done with data, how the program works, and that it does what it is said to do.
- Lack of vendor Lock-in - data can usually be ported easier as there is often less incentive to make this difficult than with Proprietary Software .
- Long term usability (reduction in Redundancy and/or built in Obsolescence ) - open source software packaged with linux usually lasts longer since repeated rollouts and "must have" updates are not part of the marketing model.
- Core packages run across more platforms, and are often more standards compliant and inter operable. Major proprietary software tends to be compliant with, and interoperable with, its own manufacturer's software only, and is often hard to port to other platforms or systems.
- At a professional level, Linux is extremely highly configurable, and very robust.
- Many of its core services, including expandability, and functions such as clustering, stability, and Supercomputer -creation, are easier with Linux than many alternative common systems.
- Upgrades are issued and problems fixed faster.
- Other factors include the large number of languages Linux's interfaces are available in, the flexibility to customise it to local needs, and high quality remote management.
Companies are engaging in Linux adoption and F/OSS because:
- it is the dominant trend in software production
- to cause market disruption
- customers are demanding it, and
- to move the value-adding to different areas.
The use of Linux on desktop PCs in corporations is being driven by employees requesting it, and by corporations seeing competitors successfully deploying Linux. {Link without Title}
In government, self-determination and vendor independence are valued, as well as the local software industry development that may surround the adoption of Linux.
In the developing world, recent WTO agreements have encouraged organizations to look to Linux as an alternative to using copyright-infringing software.
''(For more details see Peruvian congress letter to Microsoft detailing the advantages it sees in Linux that influenced its 2005 Linux adoption decision)''
Linux has been widely criticised for its lack of end-user focus and User-friendliness , as open source software developers tend to work towards their own and more expert needs over those of novice users.
Other barriers to widespread adoption of Linux include:
- Perception of Linux as an immature technology, especially on the Desktop - though it has been longer established in professional use and has had more development than most other major operating systems currently in use.
- Unpredictable development schedule, though this is lessening somewhat as many major projects have now moved to regular schedules, such as GNOME and Ubuntu Linux which both operate a 6-monthly release schedule
- Technical issues such as missing Device Driver s and difficulty of installation - much of which has fixed over the last decade and the problem is steadily going away, though some problems still persist due to periodical lack of corporate support.
- Legal scares such as the SCO Cases - though legal scares for an operating system are not uncommon, such as the Microsoft Anti-Trust trial and subsequent conviction.
- Vendor Lock-in by competition preventing migration to Linux
- Marketing campaigns such as Microsoft's Get The Facts effort, the statements and information of which are not subject to reliability, truthfullness, or bias checking ''(Often nicknamed the Fear Uncertainty And Doubt campaigns)''
- Agreement by government to make use of Microsoft Windows official policy in return for increased public donations by Microsoft - though some states are have begun to use Linux on their public school computers, such as Hawaii
- Poor documentation
|
