Well, 2001 is officially behind us now. It was a big year for LinuxQuestions.org. At the beginning of last year we had a mere 553 members. As of this writing we are 7362 strong. That is truly amazing growth, especially during a time where most websites are declining so rapidly. I have said it before, but I really think this site has become THE premier Linux forum around. 2002 promises to bring more of the same. Some great things are on the way, I hope you'll stay tuned.

Without further ado here is my look back at 2001:

The Good
--------
- kernel 2.4 is finally released
- Red Hat's TUX breaks record for serving content
- 802.11b becomes cheaper and more reliable (I even bought a wireless router!)
- Corel stops making Linux

The Bad
-------
- 9/11
- The horrendous security record that IIS and Outlook racked up.
- The demise of a few really good companies (BE comes to mind)
- The continued madness the DMCA and RIAA have caused
- The 2.4 VM debacle

On its way out
-------
- I keep hearing that PDA's are going. You heard it here first - they are here to stay!
- The dot.com frenzy

On its way in
-------
- Wireless networking will get even bigger
- 10G Ethernet
- KDE 3 vs. Gnome 2!
- Security and Disaster recovery (should have always been here in the first place)

Ok, I'm done for now. Feel free to add your predictions!

--jeremy

HEY!
Why the disparition of corel is in good news? Corel was a great distribution and this was a very nice product
(LOLROTF)
just kidding.

My prediction for the years 2002 is the discovery of tons of security holes in the new Windows XP and other microgoat products. This will cause lot of users start using linux.

well it's a really easy prediction

ehhh... i disagree slightly with the VM "debacle" being in the BAD - i happen to think that the more experimentation we see on kernel development, and programs in general, the better.

also... i agree that this forum is rapidly becoming one of THE linux sites on the web. i'll predict 30,000+ LQ members by the end of the year. (i hope your machine can handle that, jeremy... god knows, mine couldn't )

AND i predict that if we manage to stay alive this year (well, whatever 'alive' means to you), we'll all get a year older!

(that's coz i don't know all that much about linux... post this up again at the beginning of next year jeremy, i will work on saying something more useful then!)

I agree that the kernel being open for debate is a very good thing. Rik van Riel and Andrea Arcangeli are both amazing programmers. The more they go back and forth the more everyone benefits. This is a critical time for linux acceptance however. Problems like the VM issue, wether real or perceived, hurt linux in this respect. Was ripping out the VM and replacing it in the middle of a "stable" kernel a good thing? Only time will tell really. My machine runs better

As far as 30,000 members goes, thanks isajera. I hope we get there! I fear this machine would burst into flames before that, but we'll see.

--jeremy

hmmm.. i don't have many predictions for linux itself but here are mine of random things...

i agree with isajera.. probably close to 30,000 members at this time next year, at least 20,000 though. ( around this time last year, when i signed up, i think i was around 550 or so and look how many now, i guess there are some old timers here )
i predict close to 100,000 posts and around 25,000 threads on the site.
hopefully your box won't explode, then i won't have a reason to get on the net.
with next year coming, more will turn to linux for alternatives, and they are gonna need help, so that will be the cause of the growth of LQ and make it a premier site for Linux.

Wireless will get bigger, I plan on getting a wireless router too..
PDA's and wireless internet will get better and more popular. I think most cell phones will come standard with option of internet capabilities on them.
I also believe we will see the end of the 2.x kernel and they will jump to 3.0 this year.

those are mine... not sure if will be correct.. guess that is why they call them predictions.

Finegan's under-educated, caffeine inspired delusions for double-ought-to:

IN:
Wireless routers becoming as cheap as hubs dipped back in '98.

The advent of the 'second PC', where every joker on the planet will get their new P4 2Ghz Doze XP box for Diablo III, and look woefully at thier PII and somehow wander into a CompUSA and pick up a $30 RedHat box.

The quatro-boot. With disk sizes getting far past stupid, long past absurd and into downright ludicrous, there just isn't enough porn for a 100Gb. Its kinda like Malthus without the starvation; operating systems have grown geometrically while disk sized have increased exponentially. With Linux supporting every file-system known to man, dog, DEC and catfish; and things like DiskDruid making it easier to partition a drive than to install AIM, it isn't long before would-be newbie geeks are playing with FreeBSD/RedHat/Slackware/Win98/Win2000/BeOS machines.

Home .coms. Yeah, you know what I mean. With the Broadband roll-out happening in the states faster than the Eisenhower Interstate system and ISP handing out statics these days like they were tic-tacs, it isn't hard to run a site off of your home DSL line. I'm one of them, and I've coached about half a dozen guys on here through setting up theirs.

IN, DOWN, UP, and LEFT:

UP: RedHat- I've bashed RH a little here and there, but if anyone is going to make the commercial angle viable AND keep everything Open Source, its these jokers.

DOWN:SuSe- friggin Live-evals... I think BlueCadet summed it up best in his colloqiual: pants!

IN: Mandrake keeping share and gaining, but its hard to beat the RH monolith, even if it does have the prettiest install I've seen yet.

LEFT: Debian and Slackware not changing much at all as they'll always be for the extreme geek that knows somewhere deep down that masochism breeds competence.

What would you love to see in 2.6?

Me?

Reliable read-write NTFS support, just to quell the overwhelming XP/or2000 Linux dual-boot masses.

Reliable PCMCIA in kernel. I've had something close to 0-luck with yenta_socket stuff, although yeah I know its in its infancy.

Okay, I gotta tail this novel off before I get out of hand. Seriously, sorry for the volumous post, but it was a great topic, thanks Jeremy

Cheers,

Finegan

Yeah, one of the main things i would like to see is better NTFS support, and thats about it for the "critical updates"

The want? KDE3 to be awesome, even though KDE 2.2.2 is great for me :-), GNOME 2 to kick ass as well. Also i would like to see GIMP v.1.3 cus 1.2.2 is great!!, and its free.

My prediction is that microsoft is going to release an ad campain that attemps to demote linux. I think this will be the last straw. People, companys, cats, penguins will come together and show the world there is an alternitave to windows. I dont think M$ relizes this but I think that pissing off us linux users is going to eventually result in their downfall.

Couldn't of said it any better computerfreak!

Thats PuterFreaK .

The main thing I dont like about KDE is copying & pasting. According the the KDE 3.0 progress page, they are improving it but it still not going to be quite as good as the mac/windows clipboard (copying images between applications, etc.). The same thing is true with dragging and dropping although that has been greatly improved.

As a matter of fact i put up a reply of how crappy KDE's copy/pasting is. One thing that bugs me is when you copy a url and then try to paste it into another selection (replacing) it doesnt replace but instead copies the other one!! its so annoying having to delete all the crap in a browser before you paste it into!!

Anyone agree with me?

Sorry for the newbie question but Im new to linux and new to this forum. Could someone break it down to me as to what the VM debacle you are refering to is?

Yup 2002 its gotta be wireless for me, ..
and PDAs (well last year it was)

imagine that surfing the net 24/7 walking, talking, working, sleeping, eating and s****** WIRELESS INTERNET!!


But 2001 was a great learning experience for me personally.. especially in Linux Networking

And I hope to purchase wireless network stuff soon..

2002 - Stress and Graduation!! yipee...

Basically the old VM was ripped out and replaced by another, right in the middle of a stable tree.

There is a very good interview with Rik van Riel available here:
http://linux.html.it/articoli/rik_van_riel_en1.htm