tribbin.nl
guest@tribbin:/var/www/apache2-default$ links -dump "linux.html"
LINUX, AND WHY PEOPLE WILL USE FREE SOFTWARE
Linux is a free operating system that is widely used where security is top priority; on servers.
More and more people are acknowledging that linux will also do fine as a desktop operating system. Many big cities are looking for a way to switch their desktop computers away from Microsoft Windows.
Amsterdam is a good example. Their deal with Microsoft will expire in 2008. Microsoft is offering huge discounts for their software to businesses and organizations that are considering a switch away from their software; but it's no longer about money only.
People are finding out that switching to other software is very hard. Microsoft's document formats can not be read flawlessly in other software. The same happened some years ago in the messenger-market and webbrowser-market. Web-developers followed Microsoft's non-strandard-compliant techniques that would break websites in other browsers.
In the webbrowser-market these problems are overcome by the popularity of Mozilla's webbrowser; firefox. Web-developers (e.g. for online-banking systems) adjusted their webpages to work with this popular browser. The same will happen in the operating-system market.
Governments are afraid that they can not open their documents decades from now. The European Union has decided to use the 'Open Document Format' for all their documents. This is an open standard that can be read and written in various word-processors.
It's a no-brainer really. How can any company contend with free software that will be desktop-ready within the next few years? In a few years from now office software, and the like, is 'finished'. Microsoft Word 97 is a great word-processor. Word-processors have not been improved in any impressive way since then. It's almost finished.
It's all about popularity; what follows is vendor-support. It's one-way, really, there is no way back.
What will follow is that software companies will contend in customer-support. Oh why yes indeed, there are better days to come!
Want to know more? Take a look at the website of Ubuntu linux.
Update (12 feb 2007)
Somebody else wrote this better: http://reallylinux.com/docs/empirenotlast.shtml
guest@tribbin:/var/www/apache2-default$
LINUX, AND WHY PEOPLE WILL USE FREE SOFTWARE
Linux is a free operating system that is widely used where security is top priority; on servers.
More and more people are acknowledging that linux will also do fine as a desktop operating system. Many big cities are looking for a way to switch their desktop computers away from Microsoft Windows.
Amsterdam is a good example. Their deal with Microsoft will expire in 2008. Microsoft is offering huge discounts for their software to businesses and organizations that are considering a switch away from their software; but it's no longer about money only.
People are finding out that switching to other software is very hard. Microsoft's document formats can not be read flawlessly in other software. The same happened some years ago in the messenger-market and webbrowser-market. Web-developers followed Microsoft's non-strandard-compliant techniques that would break websites in other browsers.
In the webbrowser-market these problems are overcome by the popularity of Mozilla's webbrowser; firefox. Web-developers (e.g. for online-banking systems) adjusted their webpages to work with this popular browser. The same will happen in the operating-system market.
Governments are afraid that they can not open their documents decades from now. The European Union has decided to use the 'Open Document Format' for all their documents. This is an open standard that can be read and written in various word-processors.
It's a no-brainer really. How can any company contend with free software that will be desktop-ready within the next few years? In a few years from now office software, and the like, is 'finished'. Microsoft Word 97 is a great word-processor. Word-processors have not been improved in any impressive way since then. It's almost finished.
It's all about popularity; what follows is vendor-support. It's one-way, really, there is no way back.
What will follow is that software companies will contend in customer-support. Oh why yes indeed, there are better days to come!
Want to know more? Take a look at the website of Ubuntu linux.
Update (12 feb 2007)
Somebody else wrote this better: http://reallylinux.com/docs/empirenotlast.shtml
guest@tribbin:/var/www/apache2-default$