mbutler2 at mmm.com wrote: > > My curiousity was aroused by a mail I got from a friend, and I > wanted to know: what is the future for Linux? I think that people are finally aiming for the corporate desktop now. I have little doubt that Linux will see some big gains there in the next few years. I think the productivity software that people have been complaining has been missing from Linux is finally maturing. OpenOffice seems to work pretty well for me (though there are some Xinerama-related bugs on my system..) Evolution is now spitting out release candidates for 1.0, and Galeon has got to be the best browser I've ever used. Linux is very popular in some places, and not very popular in others. Still, an amazing number of organizations have Linux somewhere, doing something. My boss likes to refer to Linux as the glue that keeps things together. Linux is good as a server, but it also is a swiss army knife for networks. Granted, the BSDs are as good or better in this area, but having one operating system that can handle these disparate applications is very good for me -- I can just use my Linux skills for everything.. That might be a bad omen, though, as people said much the same thing five or ten years ago. If you know Windows on the desktop, you know it on the server, right? At any rate, It's pretty easy to pick up an old Pentium and turn it into a firewall, DNS server, web server, or most anything else in just a few hours. Linux systems can be used to help different systems communicate with each other, or to protect proprietary systems from the realities of the Internet. Unfortunately, many of these applications are `invisible' to management and users. This is one big reason to push Linux on the corporate desktop. It's a `visible' application of Linux, and hopefully one that employees and helpdesk staff can enjoy.. As more people see it, Linux will gain acceptance in many other areas as well. It's doubtful that Linux will take over everything and gain 90% dominance like Windows. So much code has been written for Windows that it's insane to think any differently. However, Microsoft is going to take a beating shortly. Microsoft has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way recently with regard to Windows XP (etc.), and a court-ordered remedy is no longer in the really distant future (it'll just take a year or so now ;-) Of course, Linux is battling it out with other operating systems as well. I find it hard to see Sun surviving without embracing Linux on their hardware. Once someone creates a Linux/Sparc Bootable Business Card, I think it's all over for them ;-) -- _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ ___ _ _ __ Go Lemmings, Go!!! / \/ \(_)| ' // ._\ / - \(_)/ ./| ' /(__ \_||_/|_||_|_\\___/ \_-_/|_|\__\|_|_\ __) [ Mike Hicks | http://umn.edu/~hick0088/ | mailto:hick0088 at tc.umn.edu ] -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 232 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://shadowknight.real-time.com/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20011109/cf274976/attachment.pgp