Footsteps Softly, Linux's 2003 Road _unix Linux

Linux's footsteps softly, but has quietly changed the world. Linux has never declared war on windows, but Microsoft has never treated Linux as a friend. 2003 will pass, Linux is not easy to go, but there will be no financial statements on the embarrassment and frustration. After all, in the GNU-wide pursuit of a free and open dream, Linux is never pursuing empty fame.

It's been a year of vicissitudes

Linux encountered a little bit of a headache in 2003: SCO said Linux infringement, all around to say to the lawsuit, the first of course, selected the most oil and trade most of IBM. It is a bit of a surprise that SCO's accusations, under the strong pressure of Windows platform, why did UNIX and its sibling Linux first start to fight, not to let Microsoft white pick fisherman's benefit? So will Linux, which is inherently highly idealistic, have an extra layer of trust crisis? But that's not the case, according to the 88% Linux developers who think that the Battle of SCO directors will not have an impact on Linux development. Their confidence is true, and do not say to the source code how much rap trouble, only so many Linux users around the world-the so-called "law against the public"--sco fi ght I am afraid inevitably fall a half-baked, little wool results.

At the end of the year, two of the largest Linux developers almost invariably changed, the world's most influential Linux developers Redhat announced the abandonment of the desktop market, and the European SuSE is also the role of Novell acquisition. Although it is a great misfortune, it is not necessarily a bad thing. Redhat, while abandoning the desktop market to specialize in enterprise-class product development, is not a pat on the butt, but supports a non-profit open source project,--fedora. Obviously this is a carefully chosen name, Fedora is a kind of men's fedora, obviously and redhat is inextricably linked. Fedora has now launched the first official version of--fedora Core 1. After all, the majority of users of the desktop-oriented release of the positive attitude, the Redhat release has been quite criticized the running speed issue in Fedora Core 1 has been a good solution, even if the operating speed of KDE has been greatly improved. SuSE by Novell acquisition is a good thing, Novell market share daily is indisputable fact, is needed to find new technology and market fulcrum, SUSE happen to meet this condition, and SuSE can also take the opportunity to improve their competitive strength, and redhat a competition. After the acquisition of Novell will have a strong combination of Novell+suse+ximian, if the OpenOffice, Mozilla and other important open source projects, Microsoft can really have a headache.

In addition to the Redhat, SUSE Linux distributions released by the company, Linux has a number of distributions from nonprofit nongovernmental organizations, typically such as Debian, Gentoo, LFS, and so on. They seem a little bit inconspicuous, but perhaps only they can be regarded as the real "pure" GNU release, when the major Linux distributions are a lot of changes, they naturally appear to highlight some. Debian has been favored by many Linux users with its improved and convenient APT package maintenance system. In the 2003, Debian won a Reader's Choice award for a number of publications, such as Linux Journal, Linux Enterprise, which was quite difficult for a completely free release version of Debian. and Debian have similar characteristics of LFS and Gentoo, although not well-known, but also attracted more and more like to the Linux inquisitive, like to a Linux DIY users, such a release version is unlikely to get the prominence of Debian, But it is also an important part of Linux's colorful world.

Another thing to be concerned about is that the Mandrake 9.2 initial release of the version of the installation may cause the LG CD-ROM hardware damage, which is bad news, although later proved that LG's product design led to this effect, But it is a reminder that Linux still has a long way to go in terms of hardware compatibility, and that Linux's future is not smooth.
and easy to use up the steps

Linux was not born to challenge windows, but many software developers took a fancy to the potential of Linux to challenge windows and dig aggressively. As we all know, the main obstacle to the migration of Windows users to the Linux platform is that there are many excellent applications in Windows that do not work properly under Linux. The traditional way to solve this problem is to use virtual machines and wine, the most famous of which is, of course, VMware for Linux and a relatively small reputation, only running Windows 98 but faster Win4Lin, And wine is more of a tool for playing Direct X Games in Linux. Both types of tools have their own shortcomings, the former resource consumption is relatively large, the latter for the implementation of the Windows API is not very good.

In this case, Linux publishers are starting to design a variety of Linux distributions that are better compatible with Windows applications. In early 2003, SUSE launched the Linux office Desktop, which bundled Acronis OS selector and CodeWeavers Company's crossover office to help customers run Microsoft Office and other Windows software. Of particular concern, of course, is crossover Office's good support for Microsoft Office, and by the end of the year Codeweaver will be launching crossover Office 2.0 and providing the Adobe Photoshop support.

Coincidentally, the Xandros company's recently launched Xandros Desktop 2.0 provides a complete Linux release that enables seamless compatibility with Windows applications, based on Debian 4.0, KDE 3.1.4. Xandros Although it is not possible to run all Windows applications, support for Microsoft Office is enough to make this release interesting, not to mention that in Xandros, users can run applications such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and so on. In addition, Xandros also implements good support for Windows networks. The only regret is that Xandros is not a free software and the price is not cheap. The advent of Xandros seems to suggest that competition between Windows and Linux is leading to the emergence of a new system platform with Windows and Linux features, with competitors assimilating to each other, perhaps as a future trend.

Mountain rain coming wind full building

A head-on conflict between Windows and Linux is only a matter of time, but the competing forms of Windows and Linux do not have a win-and-lose outcome like the competition between traditional commercial software companies. Linux will be a perpetual nightmare for Windows, and Microsoft's approach to Linux is unlikely to rely on traditional methods of commercial competition. What Microsoft is trying to do is explain to the public that "Linux is cheap, but not as good as windows," which is the most effective way windows can handle Linux. In 2003, two reports from agency researchers said that "the overall cost of using Windows for enterprise users is lower than Linux" and "Linux is less secure than Windows." If you take into account complex issues such as software upgrades and compatibility, and after-sale technical support, the previous conclusion still has a place to stand. But the latter conclusion is a bit confusing.

The Linux development Community's response is as cool as ever, and for them the software performance upgrade is the real concern, compared to the odd windows trick. It is particularly worth mentioning that KDE 3.2 is about to be launched in early 2004, KDE is a very common desktop environment under Linux, many people say Linux is in fact KDE. The author downloads and compiles KDE 3.2Beta (that is, KDE 3.1.93), and the experience is that KDE 3.2 will surpass Windows XP for security, operational efficiency, functionality, and interface effects. Kontact, Koffice, KMPlayer, Konqueror, Kopete and so on are all maturing, then the advantage of Windows may only be the compatibility of the trump card. Of course KDE will not be able to make a world war, so the war between Windows and Linux is just beginning (source: Chen Xiaojiang)