6 biggest wins for Linux in Q1 2007
People noted 2006 as being a lost year and I strongly disagreed and my thoughts have been further confirmed with the confident rise Linux has had throughout the start of 2007. Here are some of my "biggest wins" for Linux so far:
Dell listen to consumers and agree to package Ubuntu
Dell, one of the world's largest computer manufacturers took the time out to ask consumers what Open Source package they would like to be offered and the people responded asking for Ubuntu. Sure enough Dell responded and stated they were going to be offering Ubuntu soon. This means Ubuntu is being pushed towards the commercial market and this is possibly the biggest win imaginable.
Dell confirms that PC's will be cheaper with Ubuntu
While this goes hand in hand with the above point it remains significant because it gives Linux the commercial advantage that free software should always have. I was concerned that not selling Windows on these machines would push prices up slightly; this turned out to be false. Linux machines are going to be cheaper = another big win.
Ohio school district upgrades to Linux and saves $412k
It's positive PR like this that helps the entire community. Reading about Linux being implemented in semi-high profile situations and saving suitcase-loads of money raises the profile of the entire movement and may help convince other people to implement a Linux solution too. Not a massive win but excellent PR all the same.
Mark Shuttleworth announces there are 8 million Ubuntu users
This actually fell a day or two inside 2006 but felt it worthwhile rolling over because it was missing from my last list. 8 million users is a heck of a lot...
Ubuntu ships with stable NTFS R/W drivers, all accessible within the GUI
While not a circumstantial win for Linux I personally value this a lot higher than some "good PR"events. Having stable NTFS drivers bundled in with the very same distro that Dell are going to be packaging with machines is excellent. I can personally vouch for the effectiveness of these drivers and how easy they make networking solutions; therefore I think this is one of the biggest wins this year. In fact, you could probably state release 7.04 Feisty Fawn as being one of this years biggest wins.
French parliament switches to Kubuntu
Around 1,154 new computers will be running Kubuntu prior ot the start of the next session which occurs in June 2007 - yet another high profile piece of positive PR. As I stated earlier, while many will write this sort of news off as inconsequential; I think that it's another large-scale project that will hopefully tempt more governments to consider moving to Open Source software.
Conclusions
We've only had 4 months of 2007 so far and already Dell have agreed to package Ubuntu - which is even more impressive when you consider that Microsoft condeded defeat and allowed Dell to start offering XP once again (something they've never done before when a new flagship product has been released). 2007 is looking to be an excellent year for Linux with a lot of the pioneering work being done by the (K)Ubuntu team. Let's hope things continue at this rate! Although I doubt news as good as Dell will be repeated - not that it matters, I think 2007 has already surpassed the wins of 2006.
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