Android bakes bitter 20th birthday cake for Linux As Linux celebrates its 20th birthday, its biggest success – mobile – is turning into its worst headache. Thanks to Google's Android, and in turn thanks to the success of Steve Jobs' iPhone and iPad, Linux has found a fresh lease of life. Smartphones running the Android version of Linux account for 39 per cent of the market; …
Just to address that one particualr piece of FUD. GPL violators lose the rights to use GPL software until they cease violating the conditions of the licence.
"GPLv2 says anyone breaching the restrictions irrevocably surrenders their rights under the licence".
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/26/linux_20_anniversary_google_threat/page2.html
"What started as an off-the-radar hobby for geeks had crossed into the business mainstream by the 2000s as companies recognised it as an alternative to the cost and lock-in of Windows on the server."
From my experience, Linux was used as an alternative to the cost and lock-in of Solaris boxes with the commodity nature of Lintel being highly appealing. It wasn't used (again, in my experience) to replace Windows boxes as the software couldn't be migrated whereas the Solaris boxes were generally found to be hosting things that could easily be ported (in the several companies I witnessed it happen).
You string the following words together...
>"Microsoft hasn't stopped being any less threatening towards Linux, however,.."
Substitute "hasn't stopped being" for "continues to be" and we read,
" Microsoft continues to be any less threatening towards Linux, however,.."
Surprisingly, and despite being utter nonsense, this is more lucid than arguments in the article !
Yes there will be winners and losers in any competitive ecosystem, and yes GPL license provisions must be enforced, but where otherwise this article masquerades as learned - It is nothing more than a meaningless assembly of vague assertions constructed by someone manifestly unskilled in the art.
Lately I keep reading Google and Android hate-articles on the reg and it's starting to fog me off! The Apple articles are still there, but with less hate and more "understanding", it's almost like el'reg has a new sponsor that we don't know about!
I Re-iterate all the statements about forking being good, by design etc. and I also re-iterate the thoughts that Android won't make a blind bit of difference to Linux on the desktop, because it just isn't the same thing.
For me Desktop Linux just isn't there yet, but it's coming. I use it as a desktop, I haven't used anything but Linux as a desktop for years, but for the mainstream public, it's not there yet. That being said, my 5 year old and my 16 year old both have Ubuntu Laptops and my Mechanic Lodger is, since moving in here, running a SUSE laptop :D So maybe it's getting somewhere!
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