How The ‘Post-PC Era’ Is Benefiting Linux On The PC

ZNet’s Adrian Kingsley-Hughes notes that ‘choice’ is no longer a dirty word when it comes to operating systems, and that while over the past decade Linux has gained little traction on the desktop as a challenger to Microsoft Windows’ dominance, with market share metrics stubbornly hovering around the one percent mark, he thinks the ‘Post-PC era’ may finally provide the much-needed boost Linux advocates have been hoping for.

Kingsley-Hughes suggests that widespread acceptance of tablets and smartphones is encouraging users to think outside the psychological circumscription box to perceive computing as something one does not necessarily have to be sitting front of a desktop or notebook to do.

So could that perceptual groundshift be good for Linux? Kingsley-Hughes observes that Linux never really had a chance on the desktop because the PC ecosystem is too symbiotic, with a co-dependent synergy between Microsoft and OEMs for sales, both having vested interest in perpetuating the status quo – except of course for Apple.

Apple has proved to be the paradigm disruptor, first with the iPhone, then the iPad, forcing PC OEMs to reposition themselves multi-platform OEMs selling not only PCs but also smartphones and tablets. However, thus far, Apple is the only vendor making serious money from the shift it in initiated.

So what does all this have to do with Linux? Kingsley-Hughes thinks that with OEMs up to their elbows in new platforms, and Microsoft gambling with Windows 8 working to transform its traditional keyboard and mouse driven desktop operating system into one that people will control with their fingers – a strategy he suspects will flop due to there being no proven market for the primary touch feature, an opportunity could be opening up for Linux as a ‘bridge’ PC OEMs could offer buyers to span between the PC and the Post-PC eras.
Linux offers the aforementioned choice, which more users have become willing to exercise thanks to their experiences with using smartphone and tablet computer OSes, and with the burgeoning of Cloud computing and more computing activity being conducted on the Web through browsers, which operating system they use matters less and less, and sognificant numbers may be disposed to giving Linux a chance on their desktop or notebook similarly to the way they gave Android or iOS or Windows Phone a chance on their smartphones.

According to NetMarketShare’s desktop Operating System Market Share metrics for December 2011, Linux achieved a record 1.41 percent worldwide desktop share in December, another significant gain up from 1.31 percent in November, and continuing its recent positive streak from its 0.97 percent in July — still proportionately minuscule compared with 92.23 percent for Windows and the Mac OS’s 6.36 percent, but representing a nearly 50 percent surge over six months, and closing on triple the 0.47 percent share Linux registered in August 2007.

The Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, this week released its latest report, “Linux Adoption Trends 2012: A Survey of Enterprise End Users”, which shares new data representing Linux’s dominant role in supporting Cloud computing, Big Data and new greenfield deployments.

This year’s survey was conducted in partnership with Yeoman Technology Group late last year and received responses from nearly 1900 individuals, and filters the data to surface trends among the world s largest enterprise companies and government organizations identified by 428 respondents at organizations with $500 million or more in annual revenues or greater than 500 employees. The number of respondents from the largest enterprises in the world grew by more than 10% this year, providing an even better picture of enterprise Linux adoption trends.

The 2012 Enterprise Linux survey shows that affinity among new and veteran Linux users continues to increase at the expense of Windows and Unix. Part of this growth is due to Linux’s role in two of today’s biggest IT trends: supporting the increasing level of Big Data and achieving productivity and security gains with virtualization and Cloud computing. Enterprise Linux users show steady progress on all of these fronts and a clear preference for Linux as the foundation for these trends. Key findings from this year’s report include:

* Even as IT spending forecasts remain soft, enterprise users are adding more Linux:

Eight out of ten respondents say that they have both added Linux servers in the last 12 months and plan to add more in the next 12 months, with the same number planning to add more Linux in the next five years. Only 21.7% of respondents are planning an increase in Windows servers during that same period (next five years).

* More than 75% of respondents expressed concern about supporting “Big Data,” and nearly 72% are choosing Linux to support it:

Most enterprises expressed concern with the rapid growth of data, and Linux is clearly the platform of choice to address it. Only 35.9% are planning to use Windows to meet the demands of this new environment.

* Linux users see fewer issue impeding the operating system’s success, with technical issues cited among respondents dropping 40% from last year’s report:

Technical issues cited by Linux users dropped 40%, from 20.3% in 2010 to 12.2% today. Twenty-two percent fewer respondents cite perception by management as an issue, and 10% fewer say there are no issues at all impeding the success of Linux.

* The largest collaborative development project gains more contributions from enterprise users: This year’s survey surfaced a nearly 12-point increase in those participating in Linux Foundation activities, an 8-point increase among respondents who are working on code, and a 5-point increase in those who are testing submitting bugs.

* TCO, feature set and overall security top Linux benefits: More than two-thirds of respondents consider Linux to be more secure than other operating systems.

To download the full report, visit The Linux Foundation s Publications website.

The Linux Foundation End User Council will meet with vendors and the developer community this April 30-May 1, 2012 at The Linux Foundation’s Enterprise End User Summit. The event will take place this year at the NYSE offices. More information can be found on The Linux Foundation’s events website.

For more information, visit:
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/