Well that’s according to Dana Blankenhorn on ZDnet … While Dana is not an anti-Linux person, his view is limited to presumably the closed US ecosystem. Meanwhile the rest of the world is speeding on and adopting FOSS at a rate of knots. Ubuntu itself ( and others ) is being used everywhere from education to business, to kiosks and home desktops.
Metasys in South America has already dropped 350K desktops into schools, governments and businesses – and this is just one company!
The reason for this switch is related to a number of factors:
- Microsoft’s continued abuse of its desktop monopoly and disagreeable business tactics
- high Microsoft product prices ( often more than the cost of a machine )
- Ubuntu’s ‘word of mouth’ approach is working
- Linux, and FOSS as a whole, has a good tradition of reliability and function, and is gaining further traction
- FOSS is a good fit for developing areas of the world ( the largest area and population by far )
- the current recession is forcing businesses to re-evaluate their IT spending – specifically the cost of doing business the commercial way
So Dana, thanks for the article but next time, you may want to have a look outside your comfort zone.