We won
Happy new year,
I’m pasting a portion of an article from ZDNet verbatim, but before that, a little background. I moved away from Windows in October 2004. That was when I first received an Ubuntu CD from the now discontinued ShipIt service. It’s been a pleasurable and satisfying ride since then, although I must admit that there have been occasional periods of frustration, especially around 2006 when I got a laptop that seemed to reject all Linux wifi drivers. Those days of driver compatibility issues are firmly behind Linux now.
A few days ago, I got my first new laptop in five years, and as I’ve been doing for the past 16, promptly attempted to remove the Windows and replace with Linux. The UEFI was not having it, but after a few hours of work, I got first, KDE Neon working, although I eventually settled for Linux Mint, and boy, is it gorgeous.
Using it over the past few days, I also realise that Mint has solved something for me that was increasingly becoming an issue: Linux by definition tends to need the occasional tinkering, but as you grow into the phase of life that I’m currently in, tinkering no longer cuts it. I just want things that work, and that (and software compatibility) has been what has turned a lot of people off of Linux. With my new Mint installation, everything worked, and there is an extensive software library that means since I installed it, I have done zero tinkering.
Then I read this piece. I don’t see the need to bore you with stories of the Software Wars et al, just to gloat (as a former geek), that I agree with Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. We won. And it feels great!
Finally. the Evil Empire isn’t so evil anymore. I’ve been saying it for years now. Steve Ballmer’s running an NBA team these days, not Microsoft. Microsoft is a de facto open-source company.
In 2019, Microsoft dumped its proprietary Edge browser for a new open-source version, which is based on Chromium. It also is releasing its Teams groupware program on — believe it or not — desktop Linux. Microsoft has also strongly hinted that the rest of Office — via Office 365 I’m sure — will be showing up on Linux. Microsoft also has its own Linux distribution, Windows SubSystem for Linux 2.0, which runs in concert with Windows 10.
In other words, as Linus Torvalds told me at the Linux Plumbers Conference earlier this year: “The whole anti-Microsoft thing was sometimes funny as a joke, but not really. Today, they’re actually much friendlier. I talk to Microsoft engineers at various conferences, and I feel like, yes, they have changed, and the engineers are happy. And they’re like really happy working on Linux. So, I completely dismissed all the anti-Microsoft stuff.”
After all, as Torvalds said, “If Microsoft ever does applications for Linux it means I’ve won.” Guess what? He won.
And, so has Linux and open source. Today, with the exception of Apple and Windows desktop everyone uses open-source software for everything. And, as we’ve seen, even Windows now is getting more Linux and open-source friendly by the day. In 2020, the story is Linux and open-source software rules, while the others drool.
If you want a review of the latest version of Linux Mint, enjoy this, also from SJVN…