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Main Thursday, January 01, 2009 (21:33:00)

The Rise of Linux and the Death of Microsoft

by personman - 6583 reads

I do realize it's a pretty provocative title, perhaps I should clarify. I don't mean to say that all users will start running Linux and Microsoft will go out of business. I mean the death of Microsoft as we know it...as "the only, dominant, choice for desktop PC computing."

All in all, 2008 was a pretty good year for Linux, and I'm hopeful 2009 will be even better. Some of the notable changes that come to mind:

The arrival of KDE 4, a new Linux desktop, which, while it was initially received with some criticism, has improved, and is continuing to improve greatly. Linux is becoming a serious threat on the desktop, and I'm hopeful the fabled "Year of the Linux Desktop" may be imminent. The KDE 4.2 beta I'm running at the moment looks very slick and feels very functional.

Webcam support in Linux has greatly improved very recently. With the merging of the GSPCA and UVC drivers, Linux systems based on recent kernels support most webcams in existence...out of the box.

Wifi support in the Linux kernel has been, and is being, overhauled. Atheros, a leading manufacturer of Wifi chips, has released source code for much of their hardware. Many of their chips now work with Linux, out of the box, and support is improving rapidly.

New graphics stack. Many components of Linux's graphics system are being improved, Linux is gaining GEM, a new graphics card memory manager, created by workers at Intel, EXA/UXA, which is a new 2D acceleration system, DRI2, an improved version of the Direct Rendering Infrastructure. ATI has been releasing code for their chips, which will greatly aid creation of open drivers. Hopefully other companies will do this as well.

64-Bit Linux has gained support for Flash and Java browser plugins, removing some of the hurdles involved in using a modern Linux system to browse the web. Free alternatives to the Flash and Java plugins have also progressed quite nicely.

Here is an article at Phoronix that takes a look at some of these and other innovations in Linux during 2008. Among their picks, are KDE 4, which is a new Linux desktop, and WINE 1.0, which allows running windows games and applications in Linux.

-Andy Rink

Update: I've recently put together a preview and install guide for Kubuntu Linux 9.04.

Last year we had looked at The Greatest Linux Innovations Of 2007, and as this year ends, we have compiled a similar list of what we believe were some of the greatest Linux innovations or achievements of 2008. Among the innovations named this year were KDE 4, NetworkManager 0.7, new hardware companies standing behind open-source support, and the Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix.

Below is our 2008 list with the highlights being listed in no particular order.

www.phoronix.com/scan....&num=1

Hide Comments | personman's Profile

Comments
Some honorable mentions:

EXT4, the new linux filesystem
pulseaudio, a flexible sound server that attempts to unify linux audio
splashy, a userspace boot-splash manager (pretty boot screens)
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