Linux- Gaining Ground
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THE FUTURE OF LINUX AND THE OPEN SOURCE MOVEMENT
Analysts felt that there were two areas of the software industry that
open-source would have trouble penetrating. One was enterprise software
that related to a company's core activities. Companies would hesitate to
bet their business on free software, at least until it was backed by
heavyweights such as IBM, as Linux was.
Enterprise software was also usually built by a tightly knit group of
developers within a single company and would be difficult to develop in
a decentralized way.
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Also in the long term, the open source movement would
threaten the software industry as volunteer programmers who worked on
open source due to interest were not specialized and business
applications might be beyond their range. Due to lack of specialized
solutions, corporates would face too many risks in shifting to open
source programs.
Another major problem for Linux, according to analysts, was that of the
limited number of applications available for use on the Linux o/s.
Though Sun came up with its StarOffice applications for the Linux o/s on
the lines of the Microsoft Office suite, a lot remained to be done in
this area. Sun's StarOffice suite consists of a word processor, and
spreadsheet and database programs, and Sun was confident of making
inroads into the desktop market. |
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In 2002, Lindows.com[20] was launched, to cater to the needs of
committed Windows users. Lindows.com announced that it would develop a
Windows application program interface that would enable Microsoft
application software to run on the Linux operating system.
However, many analysts felt that it would not be possible to develop such an
Application Program Interface (API)[21] , as Microsoft could always add new
features to its applications to make them incompatible with the Linux o/s.
Most importantly, Linux would be likely to face problems because of IPRs. It
was reported that the SCO Group, the patent holder for Unix Software, would
be starting a licensing division and might register claims against Linux
vendors as Linux was based on Unix software.
In addition to the above problems, financial problems of the Linux companies
could slow down the research and development on Linux, affecting its
performance adversely compared to Windows. As Linux companies charged only
for services, it would be difficult for them to invest heavily in R&D.
In 2002, most of the companies that had shifted to Linux were using it on
low-end servers and it did not have much market share in the desktop
markets. Technically too, Linux had problems; it was reported that only
people with understanding of Unix would be able to install it easily. Linux
also had problems with graphical interfaces, and many popular application
programs failed to run on Linux (Refer Exhibit IV).
Another problem area was with regard to accountability. In case major
security bugs or problems popped up in the Linux o/s, it would be difficult
for companies to hold anyone responsible. Lack of accountability would
hinder the progress of Linux, according to some analysts. However with big
corporates pledging support and R&D investments for Linux, many analysts
believe that Linux will probably give Microsoft a tough fight and change the
dynamics of the industry.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
EXHIBIT II - TIME LINE OF LINUX
EXHIBIT III - EVOLUTION OF WINDOWS contd...
EXHIBIT IV - COMPARISON OF LINUX AND WINDOWS
ADDITIONAL READINGS & REFERENCES
[20] A San
Diego based start up, founded by former MP3.com CEO Michael Robertson for
providing applications for the windows users to work on Linux.
[21] A formalized set of software calls and routines that can
be referenced by an application program in order to access supporting
network services.
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