Wrestling with the monopoly

Thanks to the EU we can now hope for a positive expansion of open standards, innovation and competition on the desktop. In this new environment Linux becomes a compelling alternative.

By By Richard Hillesley, 11 Oct 2007 at 15:22

gallery

Change is gradual. Back in January 2001 Linus Torvalds said: "Go back a few years, and tell people where Linux is today, and most people would laugh in your face. They'd not believe you for a second. I don't see the slowness [of uptake of Linux on the desktop]. I used to see it, in just the reluctance of trying something new, and the reluctance of depending on 'this open source thing' that people had a hard time getting their head around. But that has passed - people get open source today. Now, are corporate environments slow and careful to adopt? Sure. And are they often unwilling to change? Check. Many corporate environments have the 'don't fix it if it still kind-of-works' mentality, and the last thing they want to do is to make changes to their IT department. But is Linux still happening? Oh, yes."

1 2 3 4

Email to a friend

Print this page

< Previous Strategy : Analysis & Insight Next >