How Windows Vista is turning people to Linux

By David M Williams
Thursday, 28 August 2008 03:09

Opinion and Analysis

The much-hyped "year of the Linux desktop" may still not be with us but there’s no doubting the free open-source operating system has gained significant traction in the last year. One reason for this is, with equal certainty, the mess that is Windows Vista. Here's how it's actively driving new interest in Linux.

Pia Waugh, former President of Linux Australia, recently spoke at my local Linux User Group (LUG.) She asked the audience what the major factor was contributing to the rise in popularity of open source software in recent times. Suggestions were offered ranging from FOSS staples Firefox to OpenOffice, but the winning answer was Windows Vista. It is the latest consumer operating system release (Windows Server 2008 being more recent), Waugh asserted, which is making people seek an alternative.

Sure, we have to be balanced and fair; Microsoft can’t take all the credit. There have been remarkable advances in the world of open source software that have reached the public eye. This includes the runaway success of the diminutive ASUS Eee Linux PC which brought its Xandros Linux-based software to the forefront. In fact, the Eee was so surprisingly successful that it single-handedly launched an entire new product range for ASUS and also spawned a whole new category of modern lightweight, internet-connected hardware known as nettops and netbooks. Suddenly it seems every manufacturer and their dog is at work churning out such a beast.

These nettops and netbook devices are simple, affordable devices for admittedly rudimentary computing needs – but they are portable, effective and most of all low-cost. The smaller price tags are primarily achieved by building from hardware which is low on the rung in terms of the state of the art today.

Additionally, and importantly – and this can’t be discounted, if you’ll pardon the pun – the cost savings are also achieved by completely and absolutely eradicating any and all software licensing fees. The manufacturers are not paying a single cent – or euro or yuan – to a software company for the rights to bundle their operating system or other offering along with the machine. They’ve cut out what many call “the Windows tax.”

Yet, the end users aren’t missing out; they receive a computer which is packed to the brim with useful functionality along with a perfectly competent operating system to make it all work. Yes, the vendors have been turning to Linux because it suits the low-price net-device market so perfectly. It provides a tremendous blend of essential operating system mixed with productivity and entertainment applications along with various other tools.

It is through the explosive popularity of devices like these – at prices that literally do compel people to buy one or more regardless of whether they have genuine need – that Linux is being more and more exposed to the masses. And the punters are finding they can use something other than Microsoft Windows just fine.

Ok, so the ASUS Eee has done its bit to expose as many as it can reach to Linux as well as inspire imitative competition. But what about Windows Vista? What’s it done for FOSS lately?

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