May 1st, 2007
Whose is the standard Linux?
We know who runs Windows, we know who runs the Mac. We know whose throat to choke when our PCs go ker-flooey. (Picture from Skeptico.)
Who really runs Linux?
By that I mean, which Linux distro is the standard, the one people write to, the one which will really take on Microsoft for dominance of the future?
As we report today, Dell said it's Ubuntu. The newest version, Feisty Fawn, gets a big thumbs-up from our own Adrian Kingsley-Hughes.
Our package today also asks whether Ubuntu now provides "a mainstream Windows alternative."
Whatever does that mean? I think it means, is Ubuntu now a desktop operating system which can go head-to-head with Windows and win? We have standard Linux distros in RedHat and Novell which work well, but they are primarily server products. That's where the money is.
On the other hand, if Ubuntu does win the "Linux desktop" wars, does that make a standard which application developers must write to? And if running your Linux applications through the Ubuntu distribution becomes the standard practice, doesn't that make Ubuntu the "standard Linux."
After a decade pushing this open source rock up the Microsoft hill, are RedHat, Novell, and all the other American Linux distro vendors going to have to bow before the Isle of Man? I don't know if I can learn English at this late date, having spoken American all my life…
Seriously, though, if history is our guide we may indeed have to learn English. (Colour. Labour. Lift. Loo. Lorry. The Larch.) The original deal between Microsoft and IBM (it was 20 years ago today) was that Microsoft would own the desktop and IBM would own everything else. Once Microsoft got the desktop right, there was no everything else to own.
Is there any good footy on the telly? Fetch me the Sun and let's see what those daffy Royals are up to.
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Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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