IBM Turns To Linux In Desktop Campaign Against Mi

[Swimmy]

IBM Turns To Linux In Desktop Campaign Against Microsoft

I would love to see a world where microsoft is no longer the mongering software giant with a monopolistic stronghold over the world. Linux and its software is superior to microsoft's and I hope the mainstream public catches on soon. The only microsoft product I like is its office suite software. Otherwise, when I can, I use Linux.

[frankcor]

This is good news.

swimmy, do you have an opinion on how long it will be before there's an MS Office clone for Linux?

[Swimmy]

There are already a few alternatives, though they lack all the bells and whistles ms office offers:

• StarOffice
  
• Open Office
  
• AbiWord
  

The problem is that microsoft is increasingly attempting to make its products less interoperable with other programs. So if you open a .doc file with OpenOffice, the pages will be different, indents will be off. And many of these alternatives do not have all the added conveniences, like a solid template library. But if you don't mind the subtle differences, they are perfect alternatives that you can use even on a windows machine. The difference between these alternatives and microsoft is that many of these programs are built on a volunteer basis, so there is not a constant driving force to add all the little features that microsoft has. However, they focus more on getting the code they do have to work before they add more features. So it's only a matter of a couple of years, or until Corel decides to port its product to Linux.

[frankcor]

Thanks, I don't keep up with stuff like this as much as I would like to.

IBM's support might be a better investment in their minds, than say, developing faster processors that can run bloated Microsoft operating systems and software satisfactorily.

Whether it is significant or just a symbolic poke in the eye of Microsoft will remain to be seen.

[frankcor]

swimmy said:

The problem is that microsoft is increasingly attempting to make its products less interoperable with other programs.

Actually, they've been quite successful at making their products less interoperable with their OWN programs.

[Swimmy]

True to both. hahaha.

I think IBM was holding off on its Linux stance because of its lawsuit with the Santacruz Organization (SCO) over copyright infringement. Now that the court ruled Novell owns the Unix copyrights, I think we'll see more development in the open source end that was shelved during the initial lawsuit.

Dell and HP are finally offering desktops with Linux pre-installed, although they're using Ubuntu Linux, which is considered a linux distribution for beginners.

I would not expect to see mainstream adoption of linux until there is a final standard that all the distributions have to comply with so that the average user is not overly confused on which distro to use.

Europe and Asia are seeing massive success with Linux, especially after microsoft lost its antitrust suit over there. Here in the states, it will take more converting at the business end before we see viable alternatives to microsoft for the average computer user.

[frankcor]

I know Linux servers are pretty common in business, not so much on desktops.

[Swimmy]

Yes, Linux proved its robustness and superb capabilities on servers and has a solid hold in the server market.

Can't wait until it picks up a solid hold in the desktop market.