LinuxWorld Expo: Desktop Dreams

N E W  Y O R K, Feb. 1 -- Nestled amongst the servers and embedded systems at this year’s LinuxWorld Expo, a massive trade show in New York, a desktop operating system is struggling to be born.

Big companies like Dell and Sun, and smaller ones such as Eazel, CodeWeavers and Ximian, are putting their muscle behind this year’s edition of the free, open-source operating system’s attempt to unseat Microsoft Windows’ rule over office and home end-user systems.

“Basically, anywhere you see a Windows-challenged PC, that’s a place you might see Linux,” said Herb Hinstroff, Linux program manager at Sun.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s president, said in a January speech that Windows and Microsoft Office are under seige from the Linux forces.

“I’d put the Linux phenomenon really as threat number one,” he said.

Dream on, Linux partisans, say analysts.

“Linux on the desktop from a business standpoint in the US, we see as a complete nonstarter,” said Chris Le Tocq, an analyst for the Gartner Group.

Popular Reads

Iran live updates: Trump says Iran wants to make a deal, but he isn't 'satisfied'

• 4 hours ago

Woman killed by patio umbrella while dining at lakeside restaurant: Coroner

• May 25, 5:07 PM

50,000 under evacuation orders in Southern Calif. over chemical tank explosion threat

• May 24, 8:41 PM

Forrester’s research director Carl Howe was more kind.

“Basically, it’s our view that this is the wave of the future [but] it may take 10 years. Think of today’s Linux world show as PC world circa 1982 or ’83,” he said.

Pieces in Place?

Linux currently has less than five percent of the desktop market in the U.S., according to research firm International Data Corp. Various companies at the expo showed off four missing pieces of the Linux-at-your-desk equation.

Linux comes in various flavors such as Red Hat, Caldera and Corel, but none comes close to Microsoft’s Windows or Mac’s OS in ease of use. Two companies, Boston-based Ximian and Eazel, based in Mountain View, Calif., hope to change that with slick user interfaces. Both are based on GNOME, an open-source interface project. Ximian provides a “time travel” feature which can restore your system to a past state if you screw something up. Eazel’s Nautilus product, designed by a team that includes original designers of the Apple Mac interface, has slick icons that actually let you see the contents of your files. Both have automatic software download-and-install tools to help users dodge complicated Linux install processes.