ACM TechNews

What Linux Will Look Like in 2012

InformationWeek (08/14/08) Yegulalp, Serdar

Linux is projected to evolve over the next four years into an operating system that is easy for non-Linux-savvy users to employ, with Serdar Yegulalp projecting a three-way split between three fundamental Linux usage models: For-pay, free to use, and free/libre. The most common model, free to use, is a free distribution with support optional, and additional optional support for closed-source elements such as proprietary, binary-only device drivers; free/libre distributions are wholly free. "Over the next few years, the distinctions between these three licensing models will become heavily accentuated by both the Linux community and by the creators of these distributions themselves," writes Yegulalp. He expects the Linux desktop of 2012 will develop into a bare-bones, click-and-go interface to ease non-technical users' adoption of Linux, while Linux hardware circa 2012 should include an array of mobile devices, including phones, netbooks, and products that use open architectures. Yegulalp anticipates a migration toward hardware with open standards and accessibility, while application trends he foresees include the browser assuming the role of application deployment framework. The running of Linux in parallel with any other operating system will be greatly simplified via virtualization in the Linux kernel, while Windows apps could be run side-by-side with Linux apps through the use of a virtual machine and cut-and-paste functionality. Yegulalp expects Linux to become even more dominant among servers, also partly thanks to virtualization. "Linux's mutability allows for its use not only as a server platform but as hypervisor and container for other operating systems," he writes.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/
linux/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210002129

---

© Copyright 2008 Information, Inc. This service may be reproduced for internal distribution.