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I'm saying this for the benefit of the attendees of the = Linuxfest 2000 conference that gets under way today in Kansas. Techies lo= ve the open-source operating system created by Linus Torvalds. Unlike Win= dows, they can modify it to do just what they need. Message to the Li= nux counterculture: Expecting consumers to abandon the de facto Windows s= tandard to go to Linux is like asking them to return to DOS. It's not goi= ng to happen. But Linux can succeed if it does two things successfully: g= ets big (becomes a popular choice for large enterprises) and gets small (= becomes embedded OS of choice for small devices). GET BIG Enterprise = computing is a natural environment for Linux because there are almost as = many potential applications as there are businesses. Linux offers a syste= m that is both free and very reliable. It's now the second-most-popular s= erver OS after Windows NT. But Linux has barriers to becoming the ent= erprise OS of choice. Dataquest put together the latest stats about why b= usinesses don't use Linux. These are obstacles that Linux must overcome t= o grow. Lack of in-house expertise. 25% of businesses shy from Linux = because their IT staffs don't know how to operate it. This is the biggest= reason pointed to, and it won't be easy to overcome that inertia. Free i= sn't free if you have to hire an engineer to run it. Lack of applicat= ions. Duh. Almost one-fifth of the businesses that don't use Linux said t= hey avoid it because they can't run their critical apps. Lack of stan= dardization. Torvalds keeps a close watch on his program, but Linux could= divide itself into the kind of incompatible versions that marginalized U= nix. Click for more. GET SMALL Cell phones, PDAs, Web pads. They all = need operating systems. But users don't have to know which one because th= ey never see it. Linux is already making strides here, but will have to m= ake more. Here's the latest. Adomo makes cheap information appliances= for homes. All of them will run on Linux. Click for more. Axis Commu= nications makes a Net appliance that will extend the range of wireless si= gnals using Bluetooth technology for access by PDAs, laptops, Web pads an= d devices. It does this using a tiny Linux server. Click for more. Li= neo makes Embedix, a Linux OS for non-PC computers. The company filed for= a $60 million public offering. Its latest trick is a layer that allows L= inux to run Windows CE-compatible applications. Red Hat will acquire = WireSpeed, which develops Linux-based network and telecommunications soft= ware for embedded systems. Click for more. Linux stands a chance to b= ecome a major force in modern computing. But it won't be on the desktop, = where consumers have already made their choice. But Linux can succeed in = business, where its reliability is well known, and in small devices, wher= e the OS is invisible to consumers. Do you think Linux will hit the deskt= op first, or your handheld? Hit the Talkback button and tell us. Rel=
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