Michael Dolan Dot Com

Thursday, August 11th, 2005

IBM – Linux Desktop the Next Frontier! Finally!

http://www.theregister.com/2005/08/11/_mills_linux_desktop/

Unfortunately I wasn’t at LinuxWorld to hear this, but apparently IBM’s Steve Mills first fought back against MSFT’s FUD saying,

“The cost benefit gets debated and debated and debated. The independent studies have consistently demonstrated a cost advantage for Linux with any typical workload, and it goes beyond the cost of buying the operating system.”

Then he went on to give advice on where developers need to work to get the Linux desktop movement started. Are we finally there yet? Is it really time to start the final battle? I love the contest. 98% of the desktop market share only means there’s 96% opportunity to take. And if you haven’t checked out the latest KDE/Gnome… do so now – you’ll see why we’re getting so close to this exploding. I’m sure my friends in Redmond wouldn’t be so happy…

“Pointing to large growth rates in revenue and unit shipments for Linux servers, Mill said the next opportunity for Linux is on the desktop. The market for Linux desktops is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 37 per cent between 2003 and 2007, with 10 million desktops installed by 2004, according to Mills.

Despite this, and the success of Linux on servers, developers should adopt a new approach to selling Linux and not engage in a server-style debate, he said: “Substituting Linux on less expensive hardware to run the same work, which was the server scenario, does not play out in the same way on the client.”

Customers are unlikely to swap out a 1980s client/server codebase for a 1990s client/server codebase just because it uses a different concept, Mills noted. Instead, ISV should devise applications that can provision end-users who are running a variety of desktop, laptop and mobile devices, through a centrally managed architecture that provides high-levels of reliability and performance.”