Linux developers should stop copying Microsoft and start looking at Apple

Davey Winder
Friday, 08 August 2008 20:21

Business IT - Open Source

Speaking at the LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco, an IBM VP has berated developers of open source applications for cloning Microsoft Windows when it comes to interface design...

According to reports the Vice President of open source and standards with IBM, Bob Sutor, told delegates at the annual LinuxWorld Conference that Linux is not going to make any great inroads on the desktop market until and unless developers stop cloning Microsoft Windows.

Instead, they should be spending more time developing new and unique UI designs. This comes hot on the heels of IBM announcing that it wants to build a Microsoft-free desktop with the help of Canonical, Novell and Red Hat.

The unexpected remarks came as Sutor delivered a series of predictions regarding the future of Linux. The outspoken IBM VP insisted that if Linux developers are creating traditional desktop PC applications then they would be much better off looking towards Apple for design and usability inspiration than Microsoft.

"To the degree that Linux on the traditional desktop succeeds, it will need to approach the Apple Mac in usability and attract more graphic designers for design" Sutor insisted.

Less controversially, Sutor predicted that Linux will look towards the clouds, or cloud computing to be precise, along with software as a service technologies. The traditional x86 desktop becoming less of a focus.

"We're extremely positive about the future prospects of Linux and open source, but we can't slack off and we can't forget about those who still might arise to try to slow or reverse the progress that has been made" Sutor concluded.

Certainly, in the light of the whole Microsoft-free desktop thing, IBM seems to be making something of a concerted attack on the Windows old guard. By combining the Lotus applications of the Open Collaboration Client Solution software suite with Ubuntu, Red Hat and SuSe it hopes to make the kind of impact that matters.

A hope which might be helped by the news that Lenovo, currently sitting pretty as the fourth biggest manufacturer of computers on the planet, is to get involved by releasing a Linux/Lotus laptop that is Microsoft-free...