HELL YEAH!The free Linux operating system handles big tasks like running supercomputers and ATMs. Now Linux has a chance to finally crack Microsoft's hold on computing's most visible domain - mainstream PCs - because of the rise of innovative, inexpensive machines.
Of course, prognosticators perennially say Linux is on the verge. It gets high marks for security and stability, and is widely used behind the scenes in corporate servers, making it a natural candidate to steal thunder from Microsoft's Windows. And yet Linux PCs still represent less than two percent of the market.
This time, though, there's evidence of momentum. While the best features in the latest Windows release, Vista, require top-notch configurations that can quickly ramp up a PC's price, one of the hottest segments of the industry involves inexpensive computers.
Laptops under $400 (about R3 000) are real possibilities now, and some of the most buzz-worthy use Linux, such as Asustek Computer's EeePC and the One Laptop Per Child Foundation's $200 "XO" computer for schoolchildren. Linux also is available on slim little "netbooks" being pushed by Intel.
Not only is Linux essentially free to the PC vendor, but the operating system also is better suited than Vista for cheap PCs' spartan hardware designs. (Windows XP is available on scaled-back PCs such as Intel's Classmate, but it's unclear what will happen after Microsoft soon stops selling XP to the general public.)
Amazon.com's top-selling PCs include several Asustek Linux machines. Although Wal-Mart Stores recently stopped a test run of selling Linux PCs in some stores, the company says it will continue to offer them online.
Business computing suppliers are finding open-source desktops especially gaining traction in cost-conscious developing markets. For example, a PC distributor in eastern Europe is packaging software from IBM and Linux vendor Red Hat to create Microsoft-free desktops for that market.
One buyer is Aleksandar Spagnut, a director of Moscow-based Rushotel, which needed new desktop PCs for a hotel-building project. Spagnut said his company saved 30-35 percent over comparable Windows machines. He added that Linux PCs are now common enough that a snowball effect is emerging, whereby technical support and "drivers" - which essentially tell programs how to interact with hardware - are much easier to find.
"This really makes the difference," he said.
Linux might benefit from a changing conception of what computers are for. With the rise of web-based applications that reduce the need for desktop-bound software, more of the action comes through an Internet browser now. The feel of the underlying operating system is less important.
That means Linux consumers can get a lot out of their computers even if they are put off by what many reviewers still cite as Linux's biggest flaw: its uneven user-friendliness. Some tweaks to Linux machines require higher-than-average computing savvy, although this is less of an issue than in the past.
Perhaps more importantly, if the desktop operating system fades further into the background, PC makers could have greater incentive to save money on it by offering Linux.
"I'm a big believer in the inevitable forces of economics - they're like glaciers," said Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical, which this month is releasing a new version of Ubuntu, a leading version of Linux that can run PCs. "Glaciers carve out terrain. It takes time." - Sapa-AP
