In Nov 1997, 99.2% of the top 500 supercomputers in the world ran Unix.
9 years afterwards, It's market share has been eroded by Linux which now runs on 73.5% of the top 500 supercomputers.
In 1998 Linux made it's debut in the Top500 List, an authoritative list of the top 500 supercomputers in the world.
After 1998, it took Linux 7 years to break the magical 50% mark. As of November 2004, it ran on 60.2% of the top 500 supercomputers, in 2006 it nearly reached the 75% mark. I believe that Linux will go all the way to completely take over Unix's user base. Both OS's run on about 94.4% of the top 500 supercomputers.
The rise of Linux has come largely at the cost of Unix. Which is discernible from the fact that both operating systems are very similar in nature, and they both are operated the same way, thus the cost of switching is minimal. Linux is an open source, stable, secure, multi-user and multitasking operating system all these factors make it ideal for a supercomputer. Supercomputer manufacturers can modify the kernel source to suite their hardware. The kernel is monolithic but has elements of microkernels in that it allows kernel modules, which make kernel development very simple.
Contrasting open source Linux with closed source Unix leads to a major observation: A lot of money is flowing into Linux these days, and Linux has a large active community which contributes to it, enhancing and making the OS better. Whereas the money flowing into Unix is stagnant. After the commercialization of Unix, the operating system has been largely in decline, I expect the decline to continue and see it as irreversible. All these factors conspired to erode Unix market share in the supercomputing world.
Linux has made remarkable progress from a hobbyists project in 1991, to the leading OS in supercomputers and server systems. Linux also has made inroads into the embedded market. Motorola has been very successful marketing Linux based smartphones, like the e680i which I personally use, and have no regrets about buying it.
One area where Linux lacks is the desktop market. Which of course Microsoft rules. There are many things which conspired to make Linux entry into the Desktop difficult! For starters: Weak GUI(KDE is great, but in my opinion increasingly getting bloated), focus on command-line based user interface(no matter how good the GUI is you always have to go back to the command-line at some stage), difficulty of managing and installing Open source software (dependency hell! Gentoo's emerge, yum, conary do a great job at resolving that). But two hurdles I think have been overlooked, that is software piracy and lack of support for Open Source! The most natural user base of an Open Source operating system would be in the Third World. Countries which can not pay for basic amenities for their populations hardly can be expected to purchase proprietary software from multi-billion dollar companies. So open source software provides them a platform with which they can compete with the developed nations. However if I look around in my own country, Pakistan, I hardly see any Linux deployments around. The Government uses MS software in its offices, businesses use MS software, the people use MS software at their homes! MS Office is taught has part of the curriculum at high school. Most of the software is of course pirated, costing about half a dollar per CD (Windows is 1 CD). Because of software piracy MS Windows and related software are ubiquitous in Pakistan. Software Piracy helps proprietary software companies more than it hurts them! Precisely it makes people dependant on their technology! No-one I know is even considering of switching to Linux because they see Windows everywhere around them, they believe using Linux would put them at a disadvantage, so they better stick to Windows, no matter how many virii they get!
Not long ago I had an instructor at university, who was a senior officer in the Pakistan Armed Forces, he happened to be the director of the Army's directorate which was responsible for the IT policy. He was a complete "Microsoft Guy". He never considered any software solution which was not from Microsoft! I once had a discussion about why his directorate was making the Army dependent on Microsoft software, and not take up the initiative of making them "independent" by indigenously customizing open source software to suit their purposes. He replied this was impossible in the current scenario! There are no companies in Pakistan which provide support for Open Source software, and the Army required heavy-duty support, which to them was only being provided by Microsoft. Indeed in Pakistan there are virtually no companies which provide support for open source software. Most universities in Pakistan are busy at churning out software professionals which are adept at Microsoft technologies, and open source figures low on their curriculum. With no support companies it is very unlikely that any enterprise will take the risk to switch to Linux.
When I was a newbie in the Open Source world, I always wondered why someone would bother to make a complex software and give it away for free! I once came across the GPL, and its 4 freedoms, those left me with doubts about the entire Open Source software model! I said to myself: I develop a piece of software, although the GPL allows me to charge for the sale of the software, but I have to provide the sources aswell, so the first customer can distribute it for free to my other prospective customers, and I'll only have one customer!! What the hell?? I'll go broke this way! I better return to the proprietary world and charge for the software and NOT provide the source along with it.
But of course I didn’t return to the proprietary world, and stayed and investigated abit more, I came across writings of Micheal Tiemann, Doc Searls and the renowned work "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" which cleared most of my doubts.
The Open Source economic model is the EXACT opposite of the proprietary model! Proprietary companies provide software at a substantial price, which includes support services. Open Source provides free software, but with paid support! So its like Retail vs Services for commodities model.
Open Source model allows various software companies to provide support for software which might have been developed by someone else, and it doesn’t lead to a saturated support services market! Because only the best companies survive. Whereas the Proprietary model naturally gives the software developer an advantage. I would call companies such as McAfee and Symantec "support companies" as they are providing solutions which keep your Windows installation running and remove malicious software. But they are providing support for a software which's source they do not have limited access to. The recent move by Microsoft to disallow access to the Windows Vista internals, should be a wakeup call for all support companies targetting non-open source software. In a proprietary world support companies are effectively second class citizens, and can be ditched by their "masters".
Making the source available and charging for support services, also leads to great software! A proprietary company can have a few great developers, some excellent quality assurance experts, an army of beta testers and provide software which is good. After release only two groups of people will actually see the code: The company's developers, and crackers/hackers! If the company's developer finds them, its a patch! If a cracker finds it; it’s a malware or a new virus, and users are exposed until the company patches the flaw. In the Open Source world, because the source code is freely available a lot more people have access to the source and ability to study it, find bugs fix it or exploit it. But the incentives in the open source world to exploit are less than in the proprietary world. Because the effect will be limited, mainly due to the enhanced security of most Linux deployments. Software such as IpTables, SELinux, LIDS etc. Make Linux so much more secure than any operating system I've used.
However "support" is not the only thing Open Source enables you to do. LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL and PHP/Perl/python) provides a great platform to innovate on and provide innovative services to people. Just Look around the Internet, and the quality of services is just amazing!
I (as many other people now think) conjecture that future software companies will be increasing support/services driven not based on the model of existing proprietary companies (eg. Microsoft). Google, the multi-billions dollar company, which made its wealth not from selling software like Microsoft, but from providing a service to its users, that is context sensitive ads, bases its software infrastructure mainly on Linux and Open Source software.
This is my first article, and I was forced to write in response to a post in a local newspaper's (Dawn.com) Computer section, in 2004
The editor of the paper's Computer section had decieved a potential linux user, by replying negatively to his queries, saying such things such as :"Linux doenst have MSN support", "Linux doesnt support much hardware", "Linux has virtually no Software".
I was shocked, and wrote this article to address some of the most common misperceptions about linux in Pakistan and around the world in general.
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This article is about tackling the most common myths regarding Linux desktop distributions head on. These myths not only spread misinformation about Linux in general but also discourage potential users.
Introduction: Linux is just 'another' operating system, what's all the fuss about it?
Precisely Linux is not an operating system; rather it is the kernel of an operating system. A kernel is software that enables communications between computer applications and hardware, providing system services like file management, virtual memory, device I/O, scheduling and more. A complete operating system can be built using the Linux kernel, such an operating system is termed as a Linux distribution (popularly called 'distro'). Many flavors of Linux distributions have been built, ranging from high end super computer operating systems, to PC desktop operating systems. Although the uptake of Linux in enterprise and scientific circles has been promising, Linux suffers from certain myths spread by people who have never used it nor have any significant experience of Linux whatsoever. This article is intended to dispel the most popular myths about Linux desktop distributions. As a convention from now Linux will not refer to the kernel but to a general Linux desktop (PC) distribution such as Mandrake Linux, Red Hat Linux, Slackware etc.
Why use Linux anyway?
IBM studies on TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) show that Linux-based solutions are approximately twice less costly than Microsoft Windows-based solutions in a broad range of situations. Other studies from IBM show a Linux-based system's down-time(the time while a system is down) is approximately ten times lower than a Microsoft Windows-based system.
These studies are very interesting because Microsoft Windows and Linux run on the same hardware, allowing a very significant comparison of the operating systems.
Linux is often seen as a secure operating system as it does not suffer from the frequent Trojan, worm and virus attacks on the web, which can target Microsoft Windows Systems only. As a matter of fact last year Microsoft released a number security patches for there many of there Windows operating system, of which quite a few were critical updates, and many came after a major attack had been perpetuated.
Linux security is not perfect, but the new versions of Linux are immensely secure partly due to the United States National Security Agency’s project called SELinux (Security Enhanced Linux) which aims at creating a secure operating system for the United States Army and it’s sister branches currently SELinux version 2 is available. But according to philosophy a change in Linux kernel has to be returned to the community of the benefit of all. SELinux Security code has been in-cooperated into standard Linux kernel and distributions, and can be used to secure your home computer system.
Generally 8 points sum the 'Linux Advantage' up:
* Linux source code is freely distributed. Tens of thousands of programmers and various organizations have reviewed the source code to improve performance, eliminate bugs, and strengthen security. No other operating system has ever undergone this level of review.
* Linux has the best technical support available. Linux is supported by commercial distributors, consultants, and by a very active community of users and developers. In 1997, the Linux community was awarded InfoWorld's Product of the Year Award for Best Technical Support over all commercial software vendors.
* Linux has no vendor lock-in. The availability of source code means that every user and support provider is empowered to get to the root of technical problems quickly and effectively. This contrasts sharply with proprietary operating systems, where even top-tier support providers must rely on the OS vendor for technical information and bug fixes.
* Linux runs on a wide range of hardware. Most Linux systems are based on standard PC hardware, and Linux supports a very wide range of PC devices. However, it also supports a wide range of other computer types, including Alpha, Power PC, 680x0, SPARC, and Strong Arm processors, and system sizes ranging from PDAs (such as the PalmPilot) to supercomputers constructed from clusters of systems (Beowulf clusters).
* Linux is exceptionally stable. Properly configured, Linux systems will generally run until the hardware fails or the system is shut down. Continuous up-times of hundreds of days (up to a year or more) are not uncommon. Leading Internet Search Engine Google.com uses Linux to power its systems.
* Linux has the tools and applications you need. Programs ranging from the market-dominating Apache web server to the powerful GIMP graphics editor are included in most Linux distributions. Free and commercial applications included in most distributions are available to meet most application needs.
* Linux has a low total cost of ownership. Although the Linux learning curve is significant, the stability, design, and breadth of tools available for Linux result in very low ongoing operating costs.
* The Linux Philosophy: ``all for one and one for all´´ All changes one makes in Open Source software will benefit each and everyone, all over the world. Without exceptions or constraints.
Myth 1: Linux is too hard to use for the novice user or Linux is difficult to install!
To be honest any operating system being installed for the first time always seems difficult, we think Microsoft Windows is easy to install, because we all have done it so many times. Popular distributions such as Mandrake, SuSE, Red Hat, Lycoris DesktopLX or Elx offer complete graphical installations, with plenty of help at each screen and form, it is worth noting that even popular operating systems such Microsoft Windows XP and Apple MacOSX do not have a complete graphical installations. Some distributions such as Gentoo, SuSe and Slackware have complete near automated installers where all the user needs to do is keep pressing the enter button, because the installer sets default values it self.
As of ease of use is concerned Linux began as a programmer's operating system, written by and for those that like to get their hands dirty, so to speak, with the bits and bytes that make things happen on computers. Perhaps because of this beginning, ease of use has only recently become a consideration. Recently thanks to the GUI environments of Gnome and KDE which have been developed by thousands of volunteers across the world, Linux users enjoy the benefit of one of the best graphical interfaces. KDE is the most popular Linux GUI; it has numerous features which surpass even that of popular operating systems, while preserving the evolutionary stability Linux is loved for.
Myth 2: Linux has no technical support!
I am astonished to hear such notions; I believe that Linux has one of the most open help systems used by any operating system. Linux support comes in form of 200 MB documentation which comes with nearly all popular distributions such as Knoppix, and Slackware. A plethora of Usenet groups, IRC channels, and online help sites are available.
LinuxQuestions.org is one such site and claims the membership of one hundred thousand unique members, at an average a query, what ever the sophistication, is answered within 2 hours. See the end of the article for some help sites.
Myth 3: Linux has limited hardware support!
Modern distributions such as Knoppix and Redhat ( and its latest version called Fedora), and Mandrake have state of the art hardware detections, although support for Generic hardware, (hardware that is not attributed to any specific manufacturer) is limited. Win-modems are another problem; win-modems are modems where the manufacturers make Microsoft Windows drivers only. But branded hardware is fully supported, and furthermore as Linux spreads, USB Robotics, ATI, nVidia, Asus and other companies have started to issue Linux drivers for there respective hardware, even a Linux driver is available for Pentium 4 motherboards from Intel.
Although Most Linux systems are based on standard PC hardware, and Linux supports a very wide range of PC devices. However, it also supports a wide range of other computer types, including Alpha, Power PC, 680x0, SPARC, and Strong Arm processors, and system sizes ranging from PDAs (such as the PalmPilot) to supercomputers constructed from clusters of systems (Beowulf clusters).
Myth 4: There is not much software available for Linux
Linux enjoys multiple large online repositories of Linux specific software. As a matter of fact there is a Linux equivalent for nearly every Microsoft Windows software (except for those antivirus softwares since they are not required because for Linux the number of virus which have been created is nearly null), if not it is surely being developed, even MSN Messenger, Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop equivalents are available.
But most of these softwares are in the form of source codes, but this is one of the Linux advantages. Software coming in source code, or Open Source software, creates confidence of the user using the software, since he knows what the software is directly intended to do (sure you'll have to know the language in which the program is programmed, but fake programs are never found online). Advanced user may even improve the software and send if back to the community.
User-site compiled software also performs better since the compiler compiles the source using optimizations which support only your processor instruction set. Generally, Closed Source software (nearly all Microsoft Windows software), where only the executable file is available, are only optimized for Intel processors, but people using AMD Athlon or K6 processors are at a disadvantage since there processors are not being completely supported.
Myth 5: You cannot run Microsoft Windows programs or MacOSX programs on Linux
Generally there is no need to run programs from alien operating system in Linux however
Linux uses Microsoft Windows emulators such as VMware, Win4Lin and WINE which can run any Microsoft Windows software on Linux.
Vmware is capable of running any operating system in a window in Linux be it BeOS, JavaOS, MacOSX or Microsoft Windows. It is even possible to run four or more different operating systems at the same time, if your system hardware allows it. An extension of WINE, called WineX, is capable of running Microsoft DirectX based games on Linux at near Microsoft Windows speeds. OpenGL support in Linux is native. Heavy 3D animation software such as Maya is available for Linux and used by graphics professional’s world wide. The animation work for the movie Titanic was done in Redhat Linux, a popular Linux distribution with the help of Maya for Linux.
VmWare and Win4lin are commercial programs, with free trial downloads. WINE however is completely free.
Final Comments
After reading this article if some of these above mentioned myths have been dispelled in your mind, try out a Linux distribution, If you need to know more about Linux before trying it, check some of the links appended at the end of the article. If you want to try Linux but are concerned about installing another operating system to your computer, try one of the distributions that runs from a cd, without installing permanent files to your hard drive. Two of these are the Knoppix and DemoLinux.
General Software Sites
http://www.sourceforge.net
http://www.gnu.org
http://www.savannah.net
http://www.kde-apps.net
http://www.kde.org (a popular Linux GUI, found in most Distributions)
http://www.winehq.com (The Free WINE Windows Emulator)
Distributions
http://www.distrowatch.com
http://www.nsa.gov/selinux (The NSA’s SELinux, the homepage of one the most secure operating system)
http://www.slackware.com (my favorite distribution)
http://www.knoppix.com (a popular distributions which runs from a CD, no installation required, excellent for trying)
http://www.linuxISO.org (a site where CD images of most popular Linux distributions are available to download)
Help
http://www.linuxquestions.org
http://www.tldp.com (The Linux Documentation Project, visit here to get the most genuine help)
http://www.linuxpakistan.net (A local Linux site)
