http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759...WRSS03129TX1K0

a great read.

$35billion that is a lot of scratch.

Funny to read, but... not what I call a critical article:

"Take software development, for example. Open source produces better code. Period. End of statement."
-> there's still a lot of discussion about that...

"Coverity, maker of software auditing tools, recently found that the Linux kernel has far fewer security vulnerabilities than a typical commercial software package. I'm not surprised."
-> security vulnerabilities are hard to (impossible to?) compare. Also: linux is a kernel, can you compare it to 'a typical commercial software package' ? And is this result because linux is open source, of because linux is maintained for over 10 years now, and I don't think the average software package is...

But I DO hope a revolution has arrived as the author says!

FWIW, you can get my take on this article on my blog.

--jeremy

my guess is that he is really only trying to compare it with windows (and the NT platform, about 10 years old), but doesn't want to stick his neck out too far ;-).

Clearly, Linux has scored big in the enterprise powering all kinds of servers for all sorts of tasks. And it is making waves in the embedded world on everything from cellphones to set-top boxes.

And then there's the desktop.

For me, Linux has arrived and it is unlikely I will ever go back to Windows. There are enough quality apps and drivers to keep me satisfied and the scene is growing faster than any commercial entity could sustain.

Yet, for the masses, there are some formidable barriers to overcome before the orders for Linux boxes start rolling in. One that stands out is familiarity. Humans are creatures of habit and are uncomfortable with the unknown. They resist change and will put up with an unbelievable amount of pain before considering change. That is my experience.

I hear it everyday the woes of viruses, spam and spyware, the flaky behavior and the endless patches. I have cleaned up so many hard drives and rescued more borked Windows PCs then I care to remember. Yet when I propose to them a choice, they too freeze up. So I collect my money and walk.

However, folks will only put up with so much hassle, and MS has arrogantly dished out platefulls to their customers. Governments and corporations around the world are more brave or frugal then ever before and have or will try open-source. And once people start using Linux boxes at work, and are therefore able to buy them off the shelves at Best Buy or order them right from Dell with all the familiar software and such, it will become a viable choice in that arena as well.

Therefore, penetration of the corporate desktop is most likely the key to success and one that has not gone unnoticed by Red Hat, Novell, and, now, Mandrake.