| |
| |
|
 
|
|
Linux Expands Beyond the ServerJoe Welinske — August 21, 2000
If you have haven’t heard much about Linux, it’s probably because up until now its use has been relegated to the server market. Linux is an operating system with an architecture similar to UNIX. Helsinki University student Linus Torvalds created Linux in 1991. A major reason for the growing popularity of Linux is a core architecture that keeps the operating system separate from the applications. Linux users and developers like to share stories of servers that have run for months and years without needing to reboot. Linux is particularly appealing to developers because of its native connectivity, scalability, and component model. And it’s free! From the very beginning, Mr. Torvalds made his Linux software source code freely available to the general public as part of the "open source" (or free software) movement. While Linux itself may be free, that doesn’t mean a lot of people aren’t making money from it. Many organizations are exploiting the technology by providing value-added distributions of the OS. Red Hat is a good example. In turn, organizations like Red Hat, VA-Linux, HP, and IBM find it in their best interests to help improve the platform by donating new code to the OS. A document called the "General Public License" ensures that the source code remains free, that patents cannot encroach upon it, and that a developer’s copyrights are not infringed. Throughout the conference, speakers were quoting research firm IDG's assertion that Linux servers occupy 25% of the market. This is a huge market share for an operating system with no "owner" and no advertising budget. Windows 2000 enjoys a 38% share of the market, but that comes with the investment of countless millions of dollars. But the biggest surprise is that Linux appears to be gaining momentum in the business application arena as well. IDG estimates that Linux currently has the same amount of market share as the Mac in terms of support for desktop applications. Two of the impediments for Linux have been the lack of a GUI desktop that is comparable to Windows and the lack of support by hardware makers. The latter has changed dramatically with recent announcements of support by Compaq and Dell. Michael Dell was the opening keynote speaker at LinuxWorld, where he extolled the virtues of Linux and described how Dell Computer is now offering it as an option across their entire product line. Sitting in the audience, I had the impression that Mr. Dell wasn’t entirely comfortable pitching the new line and he certainly wanted to avoid questions about Microsoft. But I think his presence made a big statement. Up until now, the lack of a robust graphical user interface for Linux made it difficult to attract application developers to the platform. And without applications there is no reason for mainstream users to take an interest. That appears to be changing. A number of organizations, profit and non-profit, are attempting to establish themselves in this area including GNOME, KDE, and Eazel. Eazel is soon releasing an attractive GUI desktop called Nautilus (see graphic below). The company was founded by some of the original developers of the Mac: Andy Hertzfeld, Mike Boich, and Guy Tribble.
The biggest news of the week came out of the press conference for the GNOME Project. GNOME is a non-profit initiative that provides a Linux desktop environment as well as infrastructure and plumbing for software developers. GNOME’s use of CORBA makes it very attractive to developers. Miguel de Icaza, founder of the GNOME Project, hosted the well-attended press session with an impressive line-up of corporate supporters at the head table. Marco Boerrie, General Manager of Sun Microsystems, announced that Sun was donating an open source version of its StarOffice software to Linux. StarOffice is a robust suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation package, database, email, and more. This is Sun’s big effort to try and compete with Microsoft Office. Sun will also make GNOME the default desktop on its workstations. Other organizations making announcements at the GNOME press conference included Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Compaq, and Red Hat. HP announced that it was making GNOME the default desktop on its HP-UX line of workstations. Not everyone welcomed all the attention being paid to GNOME, including KDE, GNOME’s main competitor. According to columnist Kevin Reichard of LinuxPlanet, "the GNOME Foundation is really nothing more than an attempt by large vendors to impose their agendas on the Linux community and stifle both innovation and community involvement. For Sun, this is nothing more than an attempt to push StarOffice on the Linux community by tying it to a single desktop standard; it's also a rather blatant effort to crush K Office before it's released." Trouble in paradise. My nose was mainly sniffing around for the scent of "Help." At last year’s conference I could only find one application that had any kind of online documentation at all—Corel’s office suite. This year there were numerous applications on display and most of them sported some form of online Help. As the products have become more robust, the need for effective user assistance appears to be selling itself. Most of the Help was browser-based but some apps dropped HTML content into proprietary windows to have more control of its display. For organizations porting Windows apps to Linux using the WINE or MainWin products, Help development becomes fairly easy. These products support the Windows Help APIs, which means your compiled HTML Help files can be run directly on Linux without any changes. Last year I tried to interest one of the GNOME developers in the idea of building a set of Help components into their desktop. He listened patiently while I extolled the virtues of a robust Help standard. When I was done I asked him what he thought and he replied, "Help Shmelp." Again, the times have apparently changed. According to Dave Mason, a documentation manager at Red Hat, several people have been hard at work integrating Help into the GNOME architecture. Three levels of Help are being added to the GNOME libraries—tool tips, What’s This? style popups, and standard topic windows. The design is embracing the use of XML content formatted by XSL stylesheets. The open source Mozilla browser is being employed as the Help display engine. Since GNOME is a volunteer effort, there will be opportunities for tech writers to contribute to the development of this Help system. Despite all of this activity, it is unlikely that Linux is going to be moving Windows aside anytime soon—if ever. However, the area of embedded systems, PDAs, and Internet appliances is one that Linux may dominate sooner than later. The ability for Linux to be easily scaled down in size coupled with no licensing costs makes this OS well suited for small devices. Personally, I haven’t seen as much excitement at a software conference since the first WindowsWorld that I attended back in 1991. Bob Young, CEO of Red Hat, summed up the potential of Linux well. He said, "a platform’s success is less about the technology itself than the momentum surrounding that technology." It appears that Linux has plenty of momentum and it will be interesting to watch if that translates into broad-based success over the next few years.
Related Sites
|
There’s no doubt about it—the Linux revolution is gaining steam. I attended the LinuxWorld Conference in San Jose and found an overwhelming amount of activity. When I attended the first annual Linux conference last year I was impressed by the seemingly religious fervor with which Linux was embraced by the assemblage of programmers. But it was mainly a hacker’s event. Long on code and short on commerce. This year it was all about business. There were over 200 exhibitors and, according to the show organizers, many vendors were turned away for lack of space. All of the major software and hardware companies had a presence (with the exception of Microsoft). The exhibition floor was filled with vendors selling end-user applications and the developer tools to create those apps. What this means for Help authors is the emergence of an entirely new environment for the creation of software user assistance. 
