Looking into the future of Linux

Looking into the future of Linux

by Tom Adelstein

Advances in desktop Linux are developing along two trend lines -- one for adoption and the other for innovation. The rate of adoption for Linux shows steady growth at a constant rate. However, technological advances can have an unpredictable impact on adoption -- and cause exponential growth.

Analysts agree on the current rate of adoption within the enterprise and among consumers and predict a minor dent in market share. Some analysts forecast that now that Linux has surpassed Apple's market share, it will take a six percent share over the next two years. Given conventional wisdom, those predictions seem reasonable.

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The disruptive nature of technological innovation throws these estimates out the window. While analysts can reliably make predictions from trade shows and vendor presentations, they are merely reporting proprietary trends in a closed environment. Taking into account open development projects bourne out of IBM, HP, Sun and the community, the world of open source quickly can take on a different hue.

Among the many innovations currently evolving in the GNU/Linux space, significant advances in interoperability among platforms such a single logon to Active Directory and even applications as mail and calendaring applications such as Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange interoperate with Linux. File managers can now visually detect Windows and UNIX hosts on a network. Device management to enhance hardware driver support, too, allows Linux to become a more supportive hardware platform than rivals.

Another key area of advancement in open source is visual. As digital convergence comes to fruition, the move toward an open environment for entertainment took a major leap when Sun Microsystems released Project Looking Glass under the GPL. The Santa Clara-based company's three-dimensional desktop environment has received great praise and attention for modernizing the look of the desktop.

In just a few short weeks, Project Looking Glass (lg3d) went from a fascinating trade show demo to something developers could bring to mass consumption.

Today, the open source project runs on Fedora, Red Hat, SuSE and Sun's Java Desktop System. It works in 64 bit and 32 bit environments. Time to market is on a fast track as new developers have migrated to the project.

One of the major contributors and proponents of Project Looking Glass, Ricardo Wagemaker of GCCLinux.com, supports its use in manufacturing, medicine and biometrics, however his world revolves around entertainment. His goal is to make Linux the quintessential entertainment platform from gaming to advanced viewing.

Tom Adelstein caught up with Ricardo to discuss his views, and news about the project . . .