Has Linux been completely defeated in the desktop system battlefield?

For executives in large enterprises responsible for desktop system deployment, the Linux operating system has been hailed as the savior of enterprise-level end users. This type of solution has incredible low cost of use & mdash; such as free ontology, Technical Support Project Charges & mdash; the release versions of UbuntuDesktop and SUSELinuxEnterprise bring a great user interface of & ldquo; & rdquo; and the camp also has a lot of powerful functions.

For executives in large enterprises responsible for desktop system deployment, the Linux operating system has been hailed as the savior of enterprise-level end users. This type of solution has incredible extremely low costs-for example, free ontology and charged Technical Support Projects-while releases such as Ubuntu Desktop and SUSE Linux Enterprise provide a "pretty good" user interface, in addition, this camp also has a large number of powerful applications and rich browser solutions.

A few years ago, Dell and Hewlett-Packard have made their own efforts to adapt to the trend; today, he is still releasing "developers" and "workstation" models pre-installed with Linux systems. In addition, anyone interested in the Linux market may also know that Google has rebuilt a user-friendly GUI for Linux (that is, the popular Android operating system) and its pure browser desktop system derivative solution (Chrome OS ). Linux is also doing well on home networking devices, fitness tracking tools, watches, and other low-cost devices, thanks mainly to its natural low-cost advantage.

However, this end-user-oriented desktop computing operating system has never won enough attention. Al Gillen, vice president of server and system software at IDC, said the Linux operating system, as an end-user computing platform, was at least in a serious coma-even to the point of no medicine to save. Yes, the Linux system is indeed developing a huge potential on Android and other device platforms, but all its efforts seem to be dispensable in the face of the terrible deployment volume of Windows. As Microsoft said, Linux's hard work is like a continuous slogan.

　　Linux never has its own application camp

As a matter of fact, just a few years ago, many small developers were actively selling their more practical and streamlined Linux OS versions. Peppermint (mint sugar) and Puppy (Puppy) Linux have selected friendly and human-friendly names for common consumers, it also admitted that it will bring more direct use effects, more convenient installation methods, more streamlined menu settings, and instant file processing applications.

These releases have never really appeared in the business environment of large enterprises. "Linux, as a client operating system for PC devices, has never been a real place in the commercial market," Gillen pointed out. "Only a few special companies will use it, or they will have a hard time building a foothold in a particular emerging market that is not fully occupied by Windows. Applications specially designed for the Windows platform, which are representative of Office and many other commercial and business applications, cannot be used normally on Linux. It can be said that the opportunity for Linux to occupy the traditional PC platform has come and gone, but it has not been able to grasp it ."

As an IT analyst who has been focusing on enterprise development trends for a long time, Charles King says the biggest change stems from the IT itself. Once upon a time, the executives in charge of computing services in the enterprise were most concerned about how to provide operating systems and applications for the large group of traditional business users. Although these users have begun to use their mobile computing devices to handle part of their daily work, they still have a PC on their desks.

"In general, the development direction of open source and Linux is completely different from that of Microsoft and Apple, and there is still a glimmer of hope that will ultimately bring about dramatic changes. At present, Microsoft's dominance (of course, only in the Desktop System field) is still unshakable, and even Apple cannot break through this challenge, "King said. "But it is ironic that although the open-source model still exists, it is mainly used to develop new standards and new development platforms ."

Of course, part of the cause is the effect of economies of scale. No Linux-related content has ever appeared on the official website of HP or Dell, and Lenovo's lenovo.com/linux is also compatible. Andre Kindness, analyst at Forrester who has been studying IT infrastructure and operation for many years, said that although bundling Linux operating systems and applications on desktops can boost its share growth, however, large enterprises often do not take this set.

He explained that the main problem is that enterprise users still need strong support for IT services, and tend to choose simple user interfaces and easy-to-use and considerate software supply. It turns out that any mechanism that requires users to find their own solutions is too complicated and they have no such patience.

David Johnson, another Forrester analyst who studies the IT development trend, pointed out that "the Linux developer community has indeed produced amazing technological achievements, linux developers, as individuals with the ability to contribute to large projects, use their own research and capabilities to boost the industry, however, they are still unlikely to come up with solutions that meet the needs of enterprise end users. In fact, what enterprise end users really need is a sense of familiarity, consistency, and compatibility-and this type of solution is a long term for Apple, Google, and Microsoft ."

　　Can Desktop Linux be redeemed?

Johnson said that the best instance to save the fate of Linux OS is Chrome OS, which is an integrated notebook and desktop product. Currently, LG (whose product is Chromebase all-in-one) both Samsung Chromebook 2 and Samsung Chromebook 2 have launched actual products to common consumers. End users are completely isolated from their specific file systems (although they can still be accessed through correct browser commands ), and you don't have to learn how to make complex open-source applications run as normal as their Windows cousins. In addition, such solutions can easily accept support and management from the IT department. (In fact, Google Chrome box for Meetings only costs $250 a year, and Google is responsible for providing technical support .)

The real problem is that Chrome OS and Android are not directly reflected in the Linux operating system in the desktop environment-they are more like a rebuild. At present, these platforms still lack productivity applications that compare with Windows, and there is no knowledge-based employee application solution specifically designed for the keyboard and mouse. Even Canonical, the most widely installed Release vendor in the Linux Desktop System camp, has not contributed to the development of Android or Chrome-on the contrary, they chose to enter the smartphone field.

"The opinion we want to express is that selling a Linux operating system to desktop PC users will not bring any economic benefits. To promote the popularization of Linux, vendors need to completely change the way people work. I don't think this is the value of Canonical, "Johnson explains. "Currently, it is a dead end to provide commercial Linux Desktop solutions to companies such as Dell and HP. They simply cannot increase the sales revenue of hardware products, but the cost of supporting the operating system is quite high-including driver development, testing and technical support ."

All analysis experts have this consensus-Windows won the first competition in the enterprise user field. Mac OS has recently increased its share, but in contrast, the possibility that Linux uses a notebook device as a stepping stone to gain user recognition has completely vanished. Linux activity space has been firmly restricted in the workstation market, and its audience is only flat devices and smartphones apart from developers. To sum up, enterprises need to make up their minds to announce that Linux has finally ushered in the end of its fate in the business notebook field-yes, all struggles should end.