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Linux Foundation "We're Linux" Competition Results
Presumably to respond to Apple’s Get A Mac ad campaign and Microsoft’s various responses, the Linux Foundation launched a competition a while ago for “We’re Linux” ads. After receiving over 100 entires, they say, the results have been announced. Below is the winning ad:
I think an article at OSNews put it best:
“We are all geeks here, we’ll get the videos. But what about the majority of the world, who have little knowledge on this whole Linux and Free thing?”
This obviously brings up the issue of target audience. As an ad for geeks and the tech-savvy world, it’s great – I really can’t complain. If, however, you tried to show this to your grandmother, I don’t think she’d have a clue what it was about.
This type of ad certainly has a place, but I would also like to see some more consumer-focused ads out. Ubuntu Ad Contest, anyone?
Linux To Outship Windows? Will It Happen?
Jim Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation, came out and made a bold prediction that Linux would outship Windows in 2009, as discussed in Desktop Linux and on Zemlin’s blog. Obviously, this is not a safe claim, but it could be more realistic than you might expect.
The argument made is that instant-on OSs, which are almost always Linux-based, will be installed on almost all computers, thus canceling out the Windows OS shipping on the computer. Once all the WIndows installs are canceled out, the Linux netbooks will then push Linux over the top, in terms of most copies shipped.
The conclusion makes a lot more sense after reading the details of the argument, but I am still not completely convinced.
My biggest problem with the conclusion is that I doubt instant-on will be mainstream until at least late 2009, if it catches on. In other words, I doubt that, even if instant-on OSs become highly popular, they will be included in the majority of computers until late 2009 at best. Right now, instant-on OSs are included on some notebook lines and a very few desktops. That is a long way from being ubiquitous, or even common.
Even if the theory came true, what would it mean? Do people really use instant-on OSs as much as they use their main OS? Even if they do, do they have any idea that they are using Linux?
Zemlin’s conclusion is not impossible, nor is it likely, still, even if users were unable to identify it as Linux, it would be a major step forward, since it would indicate that manufacturers believed in Linux, at least for small tasks.
The Linux Foundation Should Stop Criticizing Solaris
Recently, the executive director of the Linux Foundation, came out basically saying that Solaris, Sun’s recently open-sourced operating system, will never go anywhere. He even took a shot at it being open-source, saying that open-sourcing it was “too little and too late.”
Okay. First of all, in my opinion, the Linux Foundation should not be in the business of criticizing any other operating system, unless they are specifically defending Linux. Furthermore, if there is any operating system that should be completely off-limits, it should be an open-source one, such as Solaris. If anything, they should be praising Solaris for becoming more open.
One of open-source’s huge advantages is collaboration and sharing. If one project does something interesting, that can be picked up in other projects. If we are all busy criticizing each other (non-constructively, that is), we lose that advantage.
Perhaps it is too much to expect the Linux Foundation to be above the constant flow of attacks from Microsoft, Apple, and the other major players, but it seems that, at least with other open-source operating systems, the criticism should at least be kept to minimum.