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Welcome to virtuallinux.org. You are currently reading the article "Group Formed to Support Linux as Rival to Windows". All articles on virtuallinux.org pertain to the ongoing assult on the worlds greatest Operating system. Continue on reading about "Group Formed to Support Linux as Rival to Windows"
Group Formed to Support Linux as Rival to Windows
Posted on Sunday, January 21 2007 @ 20:47:24 EST by linuxwiz |
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Linux, the free operating system, has gone from an intriguing
experiment to a mainstream technology in corporate data centers, helped
by the backing of major technology companies like I.B.M., Intel and Hewlett-Packard, which sponsored industry consortiums to promote its adoption.
Those
same companies have decided that the time has come to consolidate their
collaborative support into a new group, the Linux Foundation, which is
being announced today. And the mission of the new organization is help
Linux, the leading example of the open-source model of software
development, to compete more effectively against Microsoft, the world’s largest software company.
“It’s really a two-horse race now, with computing dominated by two
operating-system platforms, Linux and Windows,” said James Zemlin,
executive director of the Linux Foundation. “There are things that
Microsoft does well in terms of promoting Windows, providing legal
protection and standardizing Windows.”
He added that “the things that Microsoft does well are things we need to do well — to promote, protect and standardize Linux.”
In
data centers, both Linux and Microsoft have benefited from the shift to
data-serving computers powered by lower-cost microprocessors and other
industry-standard hardware using personal computer technology. These
machines, running Linux or Windows, have increasingly replaced more
costly, proprietary hardware, typically running Unix operating systems.
That shift to industry-standard hardware has helped makers of personal computer chips like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, and makers of PC-technology machines including Hewlett-Packard, I.B.M., Dell, NEC and Fujitsu.
Traditional rivals of Microsoft in the software business, including Oracle
and I.B.M., have championed Linux to undermine an adversary and have
tweaked their database and other software programs to run on Linux.
Companies like Red Hat and Novell distribute Linux and charge companies for technical support and maintenance.
So
while Linux is distributed free, a sizable market has grown up around
it. The yearly sales of Linux-related hardware, software and services
is more than $14.5 billion, according to estimates by IDC, a research
firm.
The new Linux organization is “a clear sign that we are
going to continue to work together,” said Daniel D. Frye, vice
president for open systems development at I.B.M.
There is
vigorous competition among companies in the market for hardware,
software and services that work with Linux, Mr. Frye said. But
collaboration is also essential to move Linux technology forward, he
said, and avoid the kind of splintering of the marketplace that
occurred in the 1980s, when different companies supported different
versions of the Unix operating system.
The work of two other
groups — the Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group
— will be folded into the Linux Foundation, and those organizations
will no longer exist. Mr. Zemlin had been the head of the Free
Standards Group.
Stuart F. Cohen, the chief executive of the
Open Source Development Labs, said he was starting a new venture that
would use the open-source development model to build software
applications tailored for individual industries like financial services.
The
Linux Foundation will pay salaries to Linus Torvalds, the creator of
Linux, and a few other key Linux programmers. That support had
previously come from the Open Source Development Labs.
In an
e-mail message, Mr. Torvalds noted that some of the original reasons
for forming the Open Source Development Labs six years ago, like
“helping companies come to grips with Linux and open source in
general,” had in large part been addressed.
Referring to the new organization, he said, “The technical, legal and standards issues do seem to be part of a bigger whole.”
Mr.
Torvalds said his role would not change. “I work on the technology
itself, not any of the other issues,” he wrote. “I literally just sit
in my basement and do technical management. Nothing else.”
Source
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