Remember when the hot machine for running Linux was an Intel 486? Or a Pentium III? For most of us, single-chip Intel PCs are still the computers of choice. It’s what we play on, what we work on, and what we develop on.
Remember when the hot machine for running Linux was an Intel 486? Or a Pentium III? For most of us, single-chip Intel PCs are still the computers of choice. It’s what we play on, what we work on, and what we develop on.
But it seems that more and more the standalone PC or server is not what most Linux users will be running on in the next few years. Oh, there’s still a movement toward making Linux a consumer desktop system. Indeed, there’s an excellent new Web site devoted to the subject (http://www.desktoplinux.com), and a December 2001 Linux.com poll showed that 25.6% of Linux users already think that Linux is a competitive consumer desktop operating system.
But since then, Loki, the one major Linux game company, went out of business. And even before Loki shut down, 17.4% of the people who took that same survey said they think that Linux will never be a big-time operating system for the masses. I’m with them. Sort of. You see, I think Linux will become a brand-name operating system for millions of business users. But they’re not going to be running Linux on desktop PCs, they’re going to be running applications on a Linux virtual machine (VM) running on a high-powered cluster or on a mainframe.
You could see signs of this coming change at this January’s LinuxWorld. Shirts and ties far outnumbered tie-dyed shirts. The…
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