Another year goes by without the "Year of the Linux Desktop" (whatever that means) but that doesn't mean that Free software is standing still. What highlights have there been over the last year and what is still holding us back?
More and more third party applications are starting to package versions for various distributions. In November 2008 Adobe released the first Alpha version of a native closed source 64bit Flash client for Linux. With over 13 months passing since however, the year 2009 did not present us with a stable version. This is another aspect which keeps Linux a second class citizen on the net, something which could be entirely bypassed if websites used open formats for multimedia content.
This past year has seen a hotbed of activity in the web browser sphere, with the major release of Firefox 3.5 (formerly to be 3.2). This offered a myriad of improvements over version 3.0 from one year earlier. Google’s Chrome browser has recently finally seen an official version for the Linux desktop, although it is still in beta form. The adoption of browsers like Firefox on all platforms worldwide helps to make the Linux desktop more attractive, as it is generally the default choice and lowers the bar for migration.
One subtle new change which created lots of angst was the disabling of the CTRL+ALT+Backspace shortcut key to kill X. This was a change made in upstream X.Org, which naturally filtered down to the distributions. The rationale was that new users might inadvertently kill the user interface by not knowing what the shortcut does. It can be easily re-enabled via a setting in the configuration file, but the new X.Org configures everything on the fly now and doesn’t use a configuration file by default.
Almost two years since the infamous 4.0 release, the KDE 4 desktop has reached a stage where it is suitable for average users this past year. Development has continued at an astronomical rate, with 4.3 version fixing over 10,000 bugs and implementing almost 2,000 feature requests since the previous release. It is by no means yet complete, with stable versions of various important packages such as K3b still missing (but on the way).
One of the greatest user experience enhancements in KDE has been openSUSE’s integration of Firefox into the desktop, which is most impressive and long overdue. Most major KDE based distributions have now made the switch to the new version and next year the situation should continue to improve.
The Outlook
Overall, the Linux desktop is advancing nicely and on the whole, distributions are continuing to make outstanding releases. GNOME continues with solid, stable releases while the more adventurous KDE 4 has recently become stable enough to use as an everyday desktop.
Linux is also getting more coverage these days, with recommendations to use it for Internet banking instead of Windows. Companies like Dell are also starting to sell more machines with Linux. Household name Google has released their Linux based Chromium operating system, with plans for consumer devices next year.
2009 has been a decent year with solid enhancements, but there are still several core component lacking on the desktop Linux front. Will these be addressed in 2010? It remains to be seen..
Christopher Smart has been using Linux since 1999. In 2005 he created Kororaa Linux, which delivered the world's first Live CD showcasing 3D
desktop effects. He also founded the
MakeTheMove website, which introduces users to free software and encourages them to switch. In his spare time he enjoys writing articles on free software.
Comments on "FOSS: How Did 2009 Shape Up?"
2009 was the Year of the GNU/Linux Desktop. It is now mainstream with most OEMs distributing it. The number of people who had not seen/used/heard of GNU/Linux dropped like a stone this year thanks to netbooks. M$ took a billion dollar hit and had layoffs because of it. The frenzied activity in GNU/Linux is not preparation for a release but signs of a mature product with many niches. There are hundreds of thousands of developers working on it and about 100 million users. There will continue to be growth but 2009 really put GNU/Linux on the desktop map. 2010 will see real advances in widespread use of GNU/Linux particularly as thin clients and virtual desktop hosts. About 10% of PCs are thin clients and growth is rapid. Virtualization is the easy way for large businesses to migrate. In a few years only a good chunk of the consumer market and small businesses (still lots of PCs) will use that other OS.
I guess it depends what your metrics are :-)
-c
Time for devs to wake up: Flash is NOT only for youtube, hulu or other movie sites. It is also for artists to publish creative multimedia interactive contents, to express their creativities.
Unless you design an open standard that facilitates multimedia interaction between the users and contents, Flash is NOT going to go away (unless silverlight beats it, technically).
HTML 5 is not gonna cut it, far from it.
I hereby declare that 2010 is the One True Year of the Linux Desktop. So let it be written, so let it be done. All in favor say \”Aye.\” All against, close your eyes and perish in a sea of molten hot proprietary magma.