[KLUG Advocacy] Re: [KLUG Members] Linux pushes forward, again.

[Adam Williams]

It is interesting (at least to me) that -

>On Thu, 2003-01-23 at 14:23, Bob Kanaley wrote:
> ... by the end of 2003, 1 million virtualized Linux instances will be live
>on the Internet, pushing virtualized Linux ahead of Windows as the computing
>paradigm moves toward a computing-on-demand model.
>>From http://www.webhostdir.com/news/articles/showarticle.asp?id=1169

as well as
http://www.kalamazoolinux.org/pipermail/members/2003-January/006446.html
referencing 
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/02/07/08/020708opconnection.xml

and

http://www.kalamazoolinux.org/pipermail/advocacy/2003-January/000491.html
referencing
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1042490975962&p=1012571727085

are all very Linux positive but very different than what Linux
"advocacy" type articles looked like 18-24 months ago.

In the beginning everyone seemed to be saying that Linux would enter the
'glass room' by bringing the power, stability, and flexibility of
traditional UNIX systems to commodity x86 hardware - a cheap OS on a
cheap platform.

But what are all these articles talking about?  Mostly Linux on what
would traditionally be thought of as heavy iron class machines - main
frames and the like.  {Of course you can now buy a entry-level iSeries
for $9,500).

It seems like Linux also brought standards and corresponding flexibility
up to traditionally very expensive and proprietary platforms.  (I've
seen this first hand on AIX 5L,  I can even compile NSS modules!!!)

It must be M$ worst nightmare - the thought of even a small business in
a corner office being able to afford to have a mini-mainframe purring
away in the back closet (and covered by a support contract from a HUGE
company).

I thought ~6 months ago that there was a good chance that DRM, etc...
might succeed in killing Open Source.  But with friends like these, and
an installed base growing this fast, seems like it will be a tougher
fight for 'net fascists than I thought.