Microsoft stated publicly in their IRS 10-K filing that they face “strong competition from well-established companies with differing approaches to the PC market.” It’s important to note that this is the “PC market”, not the server market. Microsoft is explicitly stating that their desktop operating system is threatened by Linux. “Competing commercial software products, including variants of Unix, are supplied by competitors such as Apple, Canonical, and Red Hat.” I suppose a couple years ago this announcement might have gotten me worked up a bit, but it’s 2009 and I’m just like “Yeah, and you’re just figuring this out?”
I’ve been using Linux exclusively on my computers for about a decade. I’ve been advocating and recommending free software solutions to friends, families, and business partners for a couple years. I know I’m an early adopter, but the landscape for desktop operating systems has changed pretty dramatically in the last couple years, and all signs suggest that it’ll continue to evolve. Web-based computing, netbooks, Google Android, the convergence of smartphone functionality — all of this and more is working against the traditional fat desktop OS maintained by Microsoft. No, the need for Windows on a full-blown desktop PC will likely never go away, but its place as the de facto way in which we compute is slowly disappearing.
Via PC World.
Scott, wouldn’t it be fair to say Microsoft is referring almost exclusively to Apple’s OS here? It is a variant on Unix, and is gobbling up market share at a much faster rate than any open source solution I’m aware of. I think I read somewhere the percentage of open source OS’ on the desktop have actually stayed relatively flat these last few years – is that the case?
What is Ubuntu up to these days? I was hearing a lot about them in 2006-08, and now suddenly, nothing. Are they still viewed as an “up-and-comer”?
Certainly Apple is one competitor against which Microsoft must remain vigilant; but the effort to “fight” against Apple is much more public, what with the “Laptop Hunter” and “I’m a Mac” ad campaigns. There’s no such publicly accessible marketing blitz against Linux, yet. As such, I don’t think the 10K statement is “almost exclusively” referring to Apple.
Apple doesn’t yet have a netbook or entry-level competitor, so the 10K statement about “differing approaches to the PC market” doesn’t entirely apply to the Cupertino company. Differing approaches to the PC market, to me, sounds more like netbooks, web-based computing, and the like.
Ubuntu has the Netbook Remix (http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr) which is a pretty fresh way to use Ubuntu on a limited-screen-size lower-powered computer. It’s not perfect yet, but I think it’ll offer more to casual users than most other netbook Linux distributions to date.
You forgot the best part Scott (this should be shouted from the rooftops): there is no need to install memory and money sucking anti-virus security, or firewall programs in Linux! The same can be said for a certain fruity OS, but unlike Linux, you’re not allowed to install that OS on any computer you like, for free.
Linux is not gratis, it is free. Free software is not about price, and the whole “Hey it’s free!” is a pretty bad argument, and also bad for companies which may need to charge in order to make money, as people assume the price is nil.
RMS himself used to charge like $150 to send you a cassette with emacs on it.
Linux is free if your time has no value.