
Figure 1: The Penguin has been a symbol for the Linux world for some time now, and it's interested to observe some of its regional variations.
In days gone by, the personification of Linux might have conjured up the image of a hotshot college kid full of half-baked ideas and sharp edges. But that college kid has now graduated into the business world, and unleashed his furious entrepreneurial spirit. Today, Linux has a sharper, more refined edge than before, and has branched out into private, public, enterprise and governmental sectors. Linux also spans all manner of hardware platforms, and serves an incredibly wide variety of purposes.
Today, Linux appears on virtually all forms of computer technology - from laptops to desktops, workstations to servers, and even discretely in the form of portable media players and handheld devices. There's a good chance that, even in what is essentially an all-Windows shop, there's an unassuming Linux device gently nestled in that picture somewhere (perhaps even running in a hidden partition on an otherwise all-Windows PC). It could be a cellular phone, a broadband router, a network attached storage unit, or a hand-held device, just to name a few items that might easily escape casual notice.
Furthermore, the embedded marketplace has become a mushrooming contingent of Linux-centric projects. These range from secure home automation devices to point-of-sale kiosks, ensuring a long and varied life for the prominent open source software (OSS) icon. In addition, industry-wide support to both unify and simplify the Linux platform, from multiple mutually-exclusive global initiatives, gives it the leverage it needs to stake a bigger claim on many of the competing desktop, server, and mobile market spaces.
To label Linux a purely enthusiast or hobbyist operating system is overly facile; such a stance also categorically denies that Linux has any real industry presence. On the contrary, prominent top-tier manufacturers such as Dell, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and Hewlett-Packard all openly support Linux in select product lines, and many lower-tier manufacturers have adopting this platform to establish cost-effective price points in various highly competitive marketplaces. Government support for Linux also comes in a variety of forms. Most notably, this includes the NSA-sponsored Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) policy extensions adopted into the mainstream by Red Hat starting with Fedora Core 2 (the current version is Fedora Core 5). SELinux extends basic security functionality to the Linux platform, and makes it easier to create a hardened installation. These are only a few examples of where Linux is actively developed by high-visibility organizations, all of which take this platform very seriously.
Stated more forcefully and simply, Linux has plowed its way out of the fringes and into the mainstream.
Unfortunately, Linux on the desktop still lacks universal, enthusiastic support from key industry giants. Many of these movers and shakers continue to cite various valid sticking points that prevent them from supporting Linux more broadly. Today, these issues still include a lack of standardized driver support, non-existent core convergence, added complexity inherent in multiple-choice offerings, and low consumer demand. In terms of desktop PCs sold with Linux pre-installed, the biggest market remains with those redistribution/redeployment systems integrators who specialize in reissuing Windows boxes as born-again Linux machines.
Dell continues to offer its Custom Factory Integration (CFI) support for customers who prefer non-Windows installations at the factory, ready-made for delivery, but the customer is required to provide all necessary installation media. In March 2006, chairman Michael Dell was quoted in support of the Linux community, noting the kinds of opportunities that Linux presents to the PC business. He had this to say about its place in the desktop market: "If the Linux desktops could converge at their cores, such a common platform would make it easier to support. Or, if there were a leading or highly preferred version that a majority of users would want, we'd preload it." Other top-tier manufacturers have voiced similar concerns when pressed about offering retail Linux packages for sale.
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Figure 2: A montage of popular, well-known Linux distribution icons
To date, Dell offers Linux pre-installed on select open source desktop models, like the n Series Dimension and OptiPlex desktop computers, and its Precision Workstation product lines. Additionally, these units ship with FreeDOS installed for customers not interested in dealing with Microsoft licensing schemes. FreeDOS is a non-Microsoft DOS-like environment for bootstrapping a system into a semi-usable state, usually in preparation for installation of Linux or some other operating system. In keeping with current market trends, these desktop units are affordably priced for three primary categories: entry-level, business-class, and enterprise desktop computing.
On the low end, OEM vendor Great Quality currently offers budget-line desktop models on the retail market (through Fry's Electronics). These units run Linspire (formerly Lindows), a distribution emphasizing ease-of-use that is designed to appeal to casual desktop users. Such desktop computers range in cost from $100 to $200 for a complete system, sans monitor. As with most vendors operating on razor thin margins in the desktop arena, few can afford to take chances on the yet-to-be-proven viability of Linux for high-volume retail. Nevertheless, by the end of 2005, Linspire earned support from over 350 Tier 3 manufacturers, who must compete against larger vendors for a much smaller piece of the action. This sheds positive light on Linux as a viable desktop OS.
More widespread adoption of Linux desktops demands equally widespread usability for this OSS platform to thrive. And in fact, numerous community, industry, and government-sponsored initiatives are underway to streamline the interface, and to facilitate interaction between end-users and Linux desktop applications. Three of these participating organizations are easily identified by their icons in Figure 3.
The Open Usability and Better Desktop organizations are two examples of the effort to improve the interaction between end-users and desktop necessary to permit Linux to gain exposure to and support from a broader, less technically sophisticated audience. On a much larger scale, strategic partnerships between two major Asian Linux distributors and government entities has established a perceived champion to counter Microsoft product lines. It's called Asianux, and even features select cities in China and elsewhere devoted entirely to Linux. Indeed, the Linux desktop threat continues to escalate in increasingly interesting ways.
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Figure 3: BetterDesktop, FreeDesktop, OpenUsability Icons
OpenUsability.org represents one of the smaller initiatives, serving as a clearinghouse for software developers and usability experts to promote ease-of-use and improved integration of OSS projects. At the time of this writing, OpenUsability boasts 140 projects, but continues to advertise a need for OSS developer and usability expert support to fill positions outstanding since 2004. As a collaborative effort, the OpenUsability project helps shape Linux and related applications for the benefit of the entire community.
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Figure 4: OSDL Icon
The Open Source Development Lab (OSDL), whose icon appears in Figure 4, is a non-profit consortium of top-tier manufacturers that includes Hitachi, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and others. It serves as an interface between the Linux customer collective and IT industry leaders. Through OSDL sponsorship and strategic vendor partnerships, the organization seeks to bring Linux onto the corporate desktop throughout the United States and Japan. This has proven instrumental to the success of Linux desktop initiatives in other similarly-aligned organizations such as the OpenUsability consortium. Such cooperative efforts involving both hardware and software vendors in a formal structure clearly demonstrate deep levels of involvement from key industry players, who make a convincing show that they'd like to take Linux seriously on the desktop.
In April 2006, the OSDL held an OSDL Printing Summit in an attempt to both simplify and standardize the Linux desktop printing experience for end-users, desktop developers, professional designers, OS distributors and hardware manufacturers. This summit called on the services of the OpenUsability organization to coordinate the interface design process for print-related tasks, for everything from installation and configuration, to operation and maintenance. This is one of many collaborative efforts to direct the right resources and attention to resolving the general user-unfriendliness of Linux that has long kept it from becoming a permanent fixture on corporate and end-user desktops.
In late 2005, Novell launched the Better Desktop initiative as a component of its new openSUSE project, to conduct usability testing for OSS Linux applications. This initiative provides resources to Linux developers who cannot otherwise afford to test their work holistically, to help them distinguish design failures from successes. This project has already conducted tests on 200 Linux desktop applications, and offers on-line footage of the results for the benefit of the greater community. With this sort of forward thinking and corporate funding from Novell, the Linux desktop is getting some much-needed attention that will help it prove itself in corporate and end-user markets.
Not only must the desktop applications be usable for unsophisticated Linux users, but the desktop must also lend itself to user-friendly interaction. Many development groups have responded to this call by releasing a cornucopia of distribution choices to simplify the Linux desktop experience. Also supporting this movement are independent software vendors (ISVs) that produce applications to ease migration from Windows to Linux desktops.
One such company is Versora, maker of the Versora Progression Desktop Software that simplifies migration through a series of interactive dialogs and a point-and-click interface. With Versora's application software, a Windows user can automatically migrate personalization settings (wallpapers, screen savers, keyboard settings), instant messaging metadata (AIM), Microsoft Office documents (via OpenOffice), and Internet Explorer files, among other things. Getting Windows users onto a Linux desktop is an entirely separate accomplishment from creating the usability needed to make that migration stick, but both achievements are instrumental to a successful outcome.
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Figure 5: MEPIS, Mandriva, Lycoris, and Linspire icons
Another interesting challenge posed to the Linux community is the trick of providing a non-Windows user with unadulterated familiarity and productivity within a Linux context. Distributions like Mandriva, MEPIS, Lycoris, and Linspire aim to streamline the interface specifically for non-native Linux users, so that a greater number of them can enjoy a relatively hassle-free transitional experience. To attract the average Windows user, Linux developers must recreate - and if possible, improve upon - the successful design (and not merely appearance) of the Windows desktop.
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Figure 6: The Nvidia SLI icon also applies to Linux
One major landmark in the history of Linux has arrived in the form of gaming applications. The Scalable Link Interface (SLI), considered the current state of the art in graphics rendering, seeks to parallelize video processing tasks among a pair (or two pairs) of graphics cards. Nvidia has demonstrated a history of fair treatment toward Linux driver development, and made an unprecedented move when it incorporated its patented SLI capability in revision 1.0-8174 Rel80. Much to the delight of formerly disenfranchised Linux gamers, the alternative platform finally earned a place in a world dominated by Windows-specific applications, many of which already took advantage of Nvidia ForceWare SLI technology.

Figure 7: Surprise! Here's what Nvidia X Server Settings look like...
Nevertheless, the gaming peripherals market leaves much to be desired when it comes to Linux support for key devices such as joysticks and gamepad controls. Also, the number of Windows-compatible games far outstrips the count of titles that run on the Linux platform.
Part of this problem is complicated by DirectX-based games that rely on a Windows-centric framework, because they doesn't always translate easily or well to equal usability on Linux. A workaround, in the form of a subscription fee-based commercial product called Cedega, permits the playback of select A-list game titles for Linux gamers, but even this solution fails to fully satisfy the issue. Until Linux proves itself to be a cash cow to the gaming software industry, it will continue to lag behind Windows - both in the number of titles written natively for Linux, and those for which alternative Linux versions or compilations are offered.

Figure 8: Virtual Server Diagram (Copyright 2006 EMC; URL forthcoming)
At the enterprise level, the Linux desktop/workstation segment has also a witnessed lot of movement in the migration market. This is especially true as ever more robust server virtualization (SV) applications have opened a door for Linux, even in generally Windows-centric IT environments. Through SV demonstrations, IT staffers are able to effectively use solutions that repartition existing resources to better handle increased server demand, and - by extension - also demonstrate the viability of Linux in the workplace right alongside Windows workhorses. Virtualization also serves to illustrate Linux desktop deployment on existing desktop hardware as a way to encourage migration, and can thus bring Linux to corporate desktops as well.
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Figure 9: The Linux Apache MySQL and PHP/Perl/Python, or LAMP, icon
Two emerging Linux-centric trends spreading quickly include high-availability Web development platforms such as the highly successful LAMP project (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, Perl or Python), along with specialized, clustered computing applications. Through an industry-wide practice of decreasing IT operating costs, Linux has also proven effective at replacing both existing Windows and UNIX server installations running on older legacy hardware that can often be costly to maintain. The Linux platform has even proven successful in emerging trends such as virtualization, and embedded specialty niches like network attached storage and small-footprint network media devices.
Linux has also earned something of a seal of approval from numerous high-profile companies, among whose ranks you'll find Amazon and E*Trade. In addition to strategic partnerships with upper-level infrastructure vendors and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as IBM, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard, governmental sources across the globe also show strong and continued interest in the continued development of the Linux platform, particularly in the server segment.
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Figure 10: Asian Linux, aka Asianux, icons for Haansoft, Miracle, and Red Flag
Linux is also making major inroads throughout the Asian business world with the significant uptake of an officially recognized, regionally standardized, unified Linux framework that works in both the desktop and server market spaces. Throughout China, Japan, and Korea, efforts are well underway to establish an official localized "Linux of the Asias". An exemplary case of this is Asianux, a joint development between three major Asian Linux vendors: Red Flag Software of China, the Miracle Linux Corporation (58.5% of which is owned by USA-based Oracle Corporation) and Haansoft of South Korea.
Asianux, which is based on Red Hat, is a basis for high-availability server operating systems, as well as powerful desktops and servers that cater to the symbolic Asian languages native to these key areas. Most importantly, it isn't a full-fledged operating system, but the very foundation upon which an OS is built. This enables the competing companies to retain their original distribution identities while formalizing a single, certifiable, commonly accepted kernel and core components.
According to a statement made in 2005 by Sun Wah Linux CEO Alex Banh, the most profound motivation for this movement - beyond merely reducing the outlay on IT infrastructure costs - has been to enervate the Windows monopoly in China. In April 2005, Turbolinux boosted its subscriber base by approximately 100 million clients, when it signed a three-year integration deal with the Industrial Commercial Bank of China, which operates over 20,000 branches in mainland China.
At the turn of the last century, Amazon.com publicly disclosed an astonishing $10 million savings when that online retailer shifted operations from proprietary UNIX servers to lower-cost Intel-based Linux machines. Indeed, many key players representing the best of breed in all industries have turned to Linux for one reason or another; chief among those reasons is a perceived lower total cost of ownership.

Figure 11: AMD/Intel next-generation server cores (images Copyright 2006 AMD for Opteron chip views and logo, 2005 Intel Corporation for Xeon chip views)
Linux achieved yet another major milestone in 2006 in the server virtualization (SV) market space, with a few prominent (though entirely separate) software initiatives. Business customer demands for increases in virtualized performance have prompted both hardware vendors and software developers to make a collaborative effort to tightly integrate hardware-level virtualization features and software application interfaces. Both AMD and Intel provide in-kernel virtualization schemes that, when coupled with a well-designed application architecture, can deliver bare-metal performance.
EMC's VMware product line encompasses a wide variety of virtualization solutions, from the home desktop to the enterprise server. VMware has already established street credibility in the SV marketplace as a turnkey solutions provider catering to tighter Linux-Windows integration and interoperability. EMC recently went to great lengths to market the latest revolution of workstation and server applications, and even openly released free evaluation copies for both Windows and Linux platforms. This small token of generosity is an excellent opportunity for proponents of OSS to push Linux into predominantly Windows-based environments, or wherever Linux appears to promise a better return on hardware investment or licensing costs.
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Figure 12: Xen, OpenVZ, VMware icons
Perhaps even more momentous than the EMC movement are the Xen and OpenVZ SV OSS initiatives, both of which boast tighter integration between the Linux platform and hardware-based virtualization features found in the latest AMD and Intel server offerings. Two prominent Linux distributors, Red Hat and Novell (SUSE), mutually announced their plans to adopt Xen SV software into their forthcoming mainstream enterprise distributions, due out later this year. Xen clearly has established an advantageous position: as a pervasive part of the mainstream product lines of both companies, Xen can quickly gain exposure to their combined subscriber bases.
SWsoft's OpenVZ SV software also provides an OSS solution for the Linux platform, and the company is urging its integration directly into the mainstream Linux kernel. One of the competitive advantages that OpenVZ has over similar projects, is that OpenVZ is derived from a well-regarded commercial application with a proven track history made by the same publisher, called Virtuozzo. Whether or not OpenVZ takes foothold as a mainstream component remains to be seen, but the simple fact that Linux has a huge spotlight in the SV marketplace plays a pivotal role in shaping its future for all parties involved.
Microsoft also plays a role in the virtualization market, and promises to deliver its upcoming Vista platform with integrated virtualization capability. Currently, support for Red Hat and Novell distributions is available in its Virtual Server 2005 (Release 2) product line, and it works for customers that use VS 2005 alongside Linux installations. By the same token, Microsoft's offering faces its biggest threat from VMware, which installs and runs on both Linux and Windows servers.
The Linux presence in the laptop market space faces a greater set of challenges than in the desktop market. It might be because laptops operate on a different timeline from desktops, where new generations appear on an almost quarterly basis; this shorter shelf-life conflicts with the too-frequent delays in the delivery of required drivers. What remains to be accomplished is a full-fledged commitment to comprehensive support for Linux laptops from top-tier manufacturers who propose to support them. That kind of commitment remains extremely unlikely until there is more evidence of coherence and unity among Linux distributions. This is, in fact, a veritable chicken-and-egg problem.

Figure 13: The Dell Latitude 110L comes preloaded with Linux
Dell Computer first announced, as early as the spring of 2000, the shipment of Latitude CPX and Inspiron 7500 series models preinstalled with Red Hat Linux certified by Linuxcare (now Levanta). Shortly thereafter, however, support quickly evaporated from Dell's Web site. In 2004, Dell established a Linux presence by opening a tiny portal that consists of a Linux-Precision workstation mailing list archive and a few community-sponsored site links, then announced an offering of an entry-level Latitude 110L preloaded with Mandriva (formerly Mandrake) the following year. The only catch is that you must be an entry-level customer based in France, where the vendor markets this Linux laptop.

Figure 14: The Hewlett-Packard NX 6110 also comes with Linux preloaded (in South Africa)
In March 2006, Hewlett-Packard of South Africa entered the Linux ring with the release of a Linspire-equipped HP NX 6110 series notebook. Following an earlier release of the Compaq NX 5000 that shipped with SUSE 9.1, which was unveiled at the 2004 LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, this represents repeated attempts from another major player to produce market-worthy Linux laptop products. Although the NX 6110 is available only in the South African market, it still illustrates that Linux is creeping into position as a viable alternative OS, even if only in minor ways and in limited releases.
Though Linux support is largely lacking in the notebook PC market, it demonstrates explosive growth in other mobile segments, including cellular phones, handheld digital assistants, and portable media players. The development of embedded Linux environments for instant-on appliance-like media playback is a strong trend in the consumer appliance market, especially where on-demand multimedia playback is concerned. For example, DVD software vendor InterVideo offers an instant-on media-centric OS that boots up in tens of seconds and operates alongside numerous other operating systems.
As it stands, Linux is poised to take the mobile phone marketplace by storm. Linux stands to benefit greatly from such rising demand, and early adopters like Motorola have a track history (and the credibility) to play "show and tell" here. Back in 2003, Motorola introduced its first Linux-based smart phone (model A760) that consisted of a personal information suite, audio-video playback components, and a trendy portable instant-messaging client. Shortly thereafter, Motorola unveiled the E680, A768i, and A780 follow-ons, also based on a Linux kernel. Though early market analysis predicted 2005 would be the Year of Linux Mobile Phones, that wasn't exactly the case. Symbian and Microsoft are still there to compete against, and both are also doing quite well. However, the burgeoning phone market has gained great benefits from the same sort of middleware applications that have bolstered Linux support in corporate IT environments.
Feature phones, smart phones, and mobile phones are the three primary categories where Linux is poised to do best. Units that center around full-featured operating systems represent a new age for mobile telephony. The Zelos Group (a global market research firm) forecasts sales in this segment to grow to 290 million units in 2008 (approximately 42.5% of all handsets). While original device manufacturers are largely divided on the strengths and merits of adopting Linux in a market dominated by Symbian and Windows Mobile, one trend is clear: all of these companies must deal with razor-thin margins while offering innovative features and adhering to a growing and more complex collection of standards. So far, the biggest successes for Linux on this front have been in the pan-Asian markets.
Here are a few key highlights that illustrate a progressive path for the Linux platform in other industries :
- A partnership between wireless platform developer Devicescape and Linux-based wired router specialist LVL7 produces an enterprise-ready infrastructure that promotes the combined strengths of each company’s specialty network designs.
- Buffalo Technology’s flagship enterprise storage solution, the TeraStation, runs an embedded Linux operating system that serves as a foundation for its flexible Just a Bunch of Drives (JBoD) and RAID capabilities.
- Linksys finds a profit margin in the Linux community, when it discovers that its popular WRT54G series WiFi routers are commonly converted into specialized Linux boxes that do much more than routing (such as file sharing, traffic shaping, and communal VoIP gateways).
Figure 15 : Buffalo TeraStation (copyright Buffalo Technologies 2005)
Each of these examples illustrates ongoing interest from distinguished IT gear builders. Their involvement in Linux development also asserts that it’s seen not only as a workable solution for today’s network appliance marketplace, but one that can also turn a justified profit for specialized applications when properly executed.
Economic factors driving down IT costs will likely remain a primary motivator as companies and organizations learn that they need to transition into the Linux world. Financial issues continue to shift the balance toward Linux solutions, with the assistance of government subsidies, global initiatives to foster improved usability, and an alliance of middleware vendors, hardware providers and platform developers based on enlightened self-interest. Today, Linux has all the background support it needs to stake claims across many industries, geographies and economies.
Finally, endorsements from established vendors like AMD and Intel can’t help but accelerate Linux’s growth in the marketplace. Next comes the battle to develop the credibility needed to attract and retain loyal corporate customer bases. In turn, this should give the Linux community the confidence to foster adoption and loyalty over the long term.
While Linux may not already be the clear and present danger to Microsoft that some advocates (or doomsayers) would like us to believe, Linux is a worthy competitor in a growing number of key technology arenas. This war is far from over, nor is its outcome certain, but Linux appears to have growing interest, momentum, and capability on its side. What it needs next - badly - is market share and clout to match.