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It's been a very good year
LinuxWorld.com 12/22/00
Joe Barr, LinuxWorld.com
What a year it's been. I've had much to be thankful for during this orbit of the sun, and since I didn't write a Thanksgiving piece, I thought it would be fitting as 2001 rolls in to recount a few of good things -- large and small -- that have come our way. |
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In 1999 the world finally realized that Linux was a major force as a server. FUD about the security and availability of open source platforms notwithstanding, the Linux growth rate in the server market was astounding. During 2000, major advances on the server laid the foundation for a similar acceptance of Linux as a desktop platform. And 2000 saw big happenings there.
How about Helix GNOME, for example? Few things have had such an impact on my desktop as Helix Code's version of GNOME. In one swoop the company removed both stumbling blocks that had prevented so many of us from adopting GNOME for regular use: it made the desktop easy to install and easy to maintain. Not long after the arrival of Helix GNOME, I became a full-time GNOME user.
According to Miguel de Icaza, Nat Friedman should be the one to get all the credit. Friedman convinced de Icaza that for Linux to outgrow its geek-only roots it needed to be more accessible to more people. Helix Code, the company Friedman and de Icaza formed, has taken a big step toward accomplishing that with its packaging, installation, and maintenance of GNOME. Thanks, Nat, Miguel, and all the hackers at Helix Code and GNOME.
And what about the bombshell announcement Sun Microsystems dropped over the summer that it would relicense StarOffice under the GPL? Few Linux events this year surprised me as much as that announcement. With all the money, hype, and hyperbole thrown at GNU/Linux from so many industry heavyweights, it's not always easy to see if the statements that companies make are sincere or simply posturing. But relicensing a proprietary product like StarOffice under the GPL removes all the wiggle room. It's done. It can't be undone. Motives no longer matter. See for yourself what's coming by visiting the OpenOffice Website (see Resources for a link). Thank you, Sun Microsystems.
Nimbly leaping from one desktop environment to another, I'd also like to celebrate the arrival of KDE2, which is running right now on my one of my two desktop boxes. If people thought that the competition between KDE and GNOME ended with the birth of the GNOME Foundation, they don't think that way any longer. Not only does KDE now have a league of its own, but the company is also building an ever more stable, complete, and polished office environment. KDE2 includes KOffice, which gives us an even broader choice of office suites. My hat goes off to all the KDE hackers.
There's also been a lot of activity to make more hardware work with your favorite desktop, from KDE2 to Blackbox. How about the great efforts of Robert Krawitz and the gang at the GIMP-Print project? They certainly deserve our thanks. I love what they've done with Epson printers, for example. Digital camera owners might want to acknowledge the work on the gPhoto and the gPhoto2 libraries, especially during the holiday season, when there are so many photo moments. And finally, Lexmark deserves a word of thanks for creating Linux drivers for its Z32 and Z52 printers.
It's also been a banner year for Linux in the enterprise, and that growth seems certain to continue. Lawson, the Japanese retailer that just purchased 15,000 IBM machines with Linux inside, has already begun rolling them out. More and more retail firms are following the example set by Burlington Coat last year. Home Depot, for one, is hard at work bringing Linux POS machines into its operation. And the $1 billion that IBM's Lou Gerstner has declared Big Blue will spend on various Linux endeavors in 2001 ensure that the trend will continue.
Of course GNU/Linux wouldn't exist without Linus Torvalds and his merry band of kernel hackers, so of course we're thankful for the thousands of you who have contributed this year. As a result of your skills, the 2.4 kernel will not only scale well on SMP machines, but also bring USB to us. And while I'm on the topic, special thanks go to Linus for not releasing 2.4 before it's ready, in spite of the pressures on him to do so.
There are a lot of folk in the Linux community who deserve to be appreciated even though they're not hacking the kernel or coding on a cool new project. They also serve who hang online to provide assistance on IRC. So to Stu Green, longtime leader of the Austin LUG: thank you for your tireless devotion to Linux and for helping it grow one newbie at a time. To Chuck Zelade and Atipa, thank you for your support of the LUG; and to Emperor Systems, thank you for hosting it. And to all the LUGs and volunteers around the world, thank you. You provide probably the very best environment for newbies to begin their Linux adventure: a helpful group of experienced users. May your community spirit never die.
My last thanks are purely personal. In March I was able to give up my day job and hang up my coding pen after 25 years in the business. I toted that code in a dozen languages: RPG II, COBOL, 370 Assembler, BASIC, TIBOL, TDE, Vision, PC Focus, Paradox, Informix 4GL, Clarion, and C. There are probably a couple of others that I can't call to mind. There were countless apps, too many all-nighters, and way too many bugs. I left a profession that I enjoyed, but I moved to another in the realization of a lifelong dream. Finally, I wasn't just another wannabe; I was making my living writing -- and writing about Linux! It's the best of all worlds for a dweeb like me. So to Nicholas Petreley and the wonderful folks at LinuxWorld.com, and all you readers out there: thank you for helping make my dream a reality.
Best wishes for the new year!
Resources
Joe Barr is a
contributing editor at LinuxWorld.com and a
recovering programmer. In addition to writing the Version
Control column for LinuxWorld.com, he writes for and
maintains The Dweebspeak Primer. Visit Joe's Version Control discussion in the
Linux Forum, hosted on ITworld.com.
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