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Linux adoption refers to the uptake of the Linux operating system by homes, organisations and governments. Linux migration refers to the change over to Linux from other operating systems.
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History
1983 (September): GNU project was announced publicly
1991 (September): first version of the Linux kernel was released to the Internet
1999: Linux is the most popular Internet serving OS, counted by domain name, with 28.5% of market (Zoebelein)
2001 (second quarter): Linux server unit shipments at 15% annual growth rate IDC
2002 (July): Linux and Microsoft (Windows XP and CE combined) have 30% share each in terms of developer use for future embedded projects (EDC).
2002: 25% of servers and 2.8% of desktop computers running Linux (IDC)
2002: Linux in use by 64.3% of Japanese corporations
2002 (October): 59% of developers expect to write Linux applications in the next year (EDC)
2004 (second quarter): Linux server unit shipments at 40% annual growth rate (IDC)
2004: Linux shipped on approximately 50% of the worldwide server blade units, and 20% of all rack-optimized servers. (IDC *)
2004: Linux deployments in retail increased 34 percent over 2003 (IHL)
2004 (February): 1.1 million developers in North America working on F/OSS projects
As an indicator of the increasing interest in Linux, it can be observed from Linux distribution tracking site Distro Watch that page views of each of their pages regarding specific Linux distributions has increased significantly over the period 2002-2006. In 2002, the most popular distribution page on the site received 274 hits per day, 704 in 2003, 1202 in 2004, 1503 in 2005 and 2705 in April 2006, an average increase of 77% per year.
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Government
As local governments come under pressure from institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the International Intellectual Property Alliance, some have turned to open source software as an affordable, legal alternative to both pirated material and expensive computer products from Microsoft, Apple and the like.
The spread of free software affords some leverage for these countries when companies from the developed world bid for government contracts (since a low-cost option exists), while furnishing an alternative path to development for countries like India and Pakistan that have many citizens skilled in computer applications but cannot afford technological investment at "First World" prices.
In 2005 the Peruvian government voted to adopt Open Source across all its bodies. The 2002 response to Microsoft's critique is available online *.
In the preamble to the bill, the Peruvian government stressed that the choice was made to ensure that key pillars of democracy were safeguarded: "The basic principles which inspire the Bill are linked to the basic guarantees of a state of law."
In January 2006, Venezuelan open source law goes into effect, mandating a two year transition to open source in all public agencies. *
The government of Pakistan established a Technology Resource Mobilization Unit in 2002 to enable groups of professionals to exchange views and coordinate activities in their sectors and to educate users about free software alternatives. GNU/Linux is an option for poor countries with little revenue available for public investment; Pakistan is employing open source software in public schools and colleges, and hopes to run all government services on GNU/Linux eventually.
The Ministry of Defense in Singapore began switching its computers from Microsoft to free software in 2004, while South Korea, China and Japan agreed to cooperate in creating new Linux-based programs. The makers of proprietary software in developed nations have followed these trends and discouraged the use of free software. Microsoft has argued that Linux is not actually a free and original system but, rather, a violator of more than 228 patents, and the SCO Group Inc. has also charged that the Linux kernel is based on parts of the Unix operating system.
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School and education
The The Children's Machine (previously called the $100 laptop), is a cheap laptop running Linux, which will be distributed to millions of children, especially in developing countries.
Macedonia deployed 5,000 Linux desktops running Ubuntu across all 468 public schools, and 182 computer labs (December 2005) *
Brazil has around 20,000 Linux desktops running in elementary and secondary public schools.
The Netherlands has an initiative called "Open Source en standaarden in het onderwijs", in English "Open source and standards in education". *
Government officials of Kerala, India announced they will use only free software, running on the GNU/Linux platform, for computer education, starting with the 2,650 government and government-aided high schools. *
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Technology
Sony's PlayStation 3 comes with a hard disk (20GB or 60GB) with Linux pre-loaded on the system. Due to the large penetration of the PlayStation platform, (200 million units worldwide in 10 years) Linux will have a great penetration possibility with PS3. *
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Commerce
Ernie Ball, the guitar string manufacturers known for their famous Super Slinky guitar strings, have used Linux as their desktop operating system since 2000. *
Google, the search engine, uses several different Linux distributions on the desktop and a customised version of Red Hat Linux on over 100,000 servers*.
Novell is currently undergoing a migration from Windows to Linux. Of their 5500 employees, 50% were successfully migrated as of April, 2006. This is expected to rise to 80% by November.*
Australian hotel booking site Wotif.com migrated from Windows to Linux servers in order to keep up with the growth of their business.*
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Motivations
The primary driving forces behind Linux adoption can be summarized as:
Other reasons cited are:
Open source - it is visible what is being done with data, how the program works, and that it does what it is said to do.
Long term usability (reduction in duplication and/or built in obsolescence) - open source software packaged with Linux usually lasts longer since repeated rollouts and "must have" updates are not part of the marketing model.
Low cost - most of the popular Linux distributions are available as a free download over the Internet, while Windows, depending on version and how it is purchased, costs between $199 and $299 per seat, while MacOS costs $129 per seat, or $199 the family pack (5 licenses), and runs only on Apple hardware.
Core packages run across more platforms, and are often more standards compliant and interoperable. Major proprietary software tends to be compliant with, and interoperable with, its own manufacturer's software only, and is often hard to port to other platforms or systems.
At a professional level, Linux is extremely configurable, and very robust.
Many of its core services, including expandability, and functions such as clustering, stability, and supercomputer-creation, are easier with Linux than many alternative common systems.
Upgrades are issued and problems fixed more quickly.
Other factors include the large number of languages Linux's interfaces are available in, the flexibility to customise it to local needs, and high quality remote management.
Companies are engaging in Linux adoption and F/OSS because:
it is the dominant trend in software production
to cause market disruption
customers are demanding it, and
to move the value-adding to different areas.
The use of Linux on desktop PCs in corporations is being driven by employees requesting it, and by corporations seeing competitors successfully deploying Linux. *
In government, self-determination and vendor independence are valued, as well as the local software industry development that may surround the adoption of Linux.
In the developing world, recent WTO agreements have encouraged organizations to look to Linux as an alternative to using copyright-infringing software.
(For more details see Peruvian congress letter to Microsoft detailing the advantages it sees in Linux that influenced its 2005 Linux adoption decision)
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Criticism
Linux has been widely criticised for its lack of end-user focus and user-friendliness, as open source software developers tend to work towards their own and more expert needs over those of novice users.
Other barriers to widespread adoption of Linux include:
Perception of Linux as an immature technology, especially on the desktop - though it has been longer established in professional use and has had more development than most other major operating systems currently in use.
Unpredictable development schedule: many open source projects have a "when it's done" attitude to releases; however, many major projects and distributions have now moved to regular schedules, such as GNOME and Ubuntu which both operate a semiannual release schedule; meanwhile Microsoft has shown unpredictable development schedules and setbacks in of many operating system releases, including its upcoming Windows Vista.
Technical issues such as missing device drivers and difficulty of installation - much of which has fixed over the last decade and the problem is steadily going away, though some problems still persist due to periodical lack of corporate support.
Legal scares such as the SCO cases - though legal scares for an operating system are not uncommon, such as the Microsoft Anti-Trust trial and subsequent conviction.
Marketing campaigns such as Microsoft's Get the Facts effort, the statements and information of which are not subject to reliability, truthfullness, or bias checking (Often nicknamed the Fear, uncertainty and doubt campaigns)
Agreement by government to make use of Microsoft Windows official policy in return for increased public donations by Microsoft - though some states have begun to use Linux on their public school computers, such as Hawaii
Poor documentation, though the man pages are an unknown feature in other major operating systems.
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Advocacy
iFOSSF International Free and Open Source Software Foundation, nonprofit organization based in Michigan, USA accelerating and promoting the adoption of FOSS worldwide through research and civil society partnership networks.
IBM's Linux Marketing Strategy
Software Livre Brasil, a Brazilian organization promoting Linux adoption in schools, public department's, commerce, industry and personal desktops.
FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan.
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See also
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