The state of the Linux ecosystem in 2013
Sep. 26th, 2013 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liam_on_linuxPrompted by this:
http://www.zdnet.com/the-windows-ecosystem-in-2013-is-more-diverse-than-you-think-7000021181/?s_cid=e539&ttag=e539
Linux is doing great at the moment - but for the wrong reasons. Not because it's caught up with or surpassed the apps or integration of Windows; it hasn't, it's a decade or more behind.
The reason it's doing great is that the computer market is shifting, towards tablets and phones and thin clients. They don't need to do much. A C21 computer is a device for accessing the Web - not the Internet, mostly just the Web over HTTP and HTTPS. And for that, Linux is not merely as good as Windows, it's better - it's more secure, meaning no need for anti-malware, meaning it's quicker. And no licensing means you can just put it on anything anywhere and not worry about it being valid or genuine.
Ubuntu is a pretty good OS - nearly as good as Win7 in many ways, arguably better than W8, and getting quite close to parity with OS X.
In apps, it's leagues behind - LibreOffice is merely a passable standalone/single-user office suite. Microsoft leads in templates, workflow, macros and scripting. The pairing of Outlook and Exchange is the world's leading, most feature-rich groupware system by a country mile, for all its many faults. It's so rich -- and expensive and complex -- that companies are starting to realise they don't need it all and can switch to Google Apps or something and save a packet.
In terms of deployment and management, Windows Pro plus Windows Server are again a decade ahead. Active Directory, Group Policies etc. are an over-complex mess but they're essentially free with Windows client and server and they're an immensely powerful combo - poor support for them is one reason for the lack of penetration of Firefox and so on in corporates.
Windows Server is actually a bloody good OS with excellent rich management tools. Linux isn't; it's a toolkit from which you can build a server OS. It's an DIY kit of a plane compared to a Learjet.
But Linux is just the thing for throwing together huge clouds of virtual servers, and if you're not too fussed about the fine details of their config - you just want them configured, up and working, *now* - then Linux has the cool tools - Puppet, Chef, Nagios, Docker, loads of them. It's cheap, fast and scalable, and a few expensive devops can run a huge farm of the things.
What is benefiting Linux is that the landscape is changing. The cloud means thin clients and huge server farms, and Linux is good at that - and cheap. Windows is getting better at it, but it's expensive and very complex to work out what you owe - which is one reason VMware are still thriving.
http://www.zdnet.com/the-windows-ecosystem-in-2013-is-more-diverse-than-you-think-7000021181/?s_cid=e539&ttag=e539
Linux is doing great at the moment - but for the wrong reasons. Not because it's caught up with or surpassed the apps or integration of Windows; it hasn't, it's a decade or more behind.
The reason it's doing great is that the computer market is shifting, towards tablets and phones and thin clients. They don't need to do much. A C21 computer is a device for accessing the Web - not the Internet, mostly just the Web over HTTP and HTTPS. And for that, Linux is not merely as good as Windows, it's better - it's more secure, meaning no need for anti-malware, meaning it's quicker. And no licensing means you can just put it on anything anywhere and not worry about it being valid or genuine.
Ubuntu is a pretty good OS - nearly as good as Win7 in many ways, arguably better than W8, and getting quite close to parity with OS X.
In apps, it's leagues behind - LibreOffice is merely a passable standalone/single-user office suite. Microsoft leads in templates, workflow, macros and scripting. The pairing of Outlook and Exchange is the world's leading, most feature-rich groupware system by a country mile, for all its many faults. It's so rich -- and expensive and complex -- that companies are starting to realise they don't need it all and can switch to Google Apps or something and save a packet.
In terms of deployment and management, Windows Pro plus Windows Server are again a decade ahead. Active Directory, Group Policies etc. are an over-complex mess but they're essentially free with Windows client and server and they're an immensely powerful combo - poor support for them is one reason for the lack of penetration of Firefox and so on in corporates.
Windows Server is actually a bloody good OS with excellent rich management tools. Linux isn't; it's a toolkit from which you can build a server OS. It's an DIY kit of a plane compared to a Learjet.
But Linux is just the thing for throwing together huge clouds of virtual servers, and if you're not too fussed about the fine details of their config - you just want them configured, up and working, *now* - then Linux has the cool tools - Puppet, Chef, Nagios, Docker, loads of them. It's cheap, fast and scalable, and a few expensive devops can run a huge farm of the things.
What is benefiting Linux is that the landscape is changing. The cloud means thin clients and huge server farms, and Linux is good at that - and cheap. Windows is getting better at it, but it's expensive and very complex to work out what you owe - which is one reason VMware are still thriving.
