Looking back over the past year, I think most people would have
to agree it has been a ground breaking time for open source.
While it is true that open source companies suffered just like
the rest of the tech sector from poor economic conditions, those
same conditions have also made open source appear even more
attractive.
Before I delve more into the economic aspects that have affected the open source industry, lets take a look at some other major events that happened in the past year. It all started with a bang when the long awaited Linux 2.4 was released January 4, bringing
in many notable improvements, not the least of which was built-in USB support.
Within just about a month, we also saw the release of KDE 2.1, which finally brought the open source desktop
up-to-par with its non-open counterparts. KDE 2.1 was what KDE 2.0 should have been, adding a good helping of polish and better flexiblity,
not to mention great looking anti-aliased fonts. The rest of the year was also kind to KDE, which gained even more
great features in KDE 2.2.x, and now is hurdling toward KDE 3.0.
We also saw Linux distributions such as SuSE and MandrakeSoft
take advantage of Linux's vast usability improvements to turn this operating system into something that even
“Harry Homeowner” could install without trouble. In fact, OfB Labs found that the difficulty of a Mandrake 8.1 install from
start to finish was significantly easier than Windows 2000.
However, perhaps even more important is the fact that applications such as OpenOffice and
KOffice finally started to mature enough
to make the Linux office a reality. Other important tools moved along at a fast clip too, with KPilot hitting high gear after becoming
part of the KDE Project, and both Konqueror and Mozilla proving
that it was indeed possible to have a great browser on the open source desktop.
We also saw giant leaps toward running Windows software under Linux as CodeWeavers pushed
Wine 1.0 forward, and made Windows-based r
plugins running under Linux something we all could enjoy. NeTraverse also forged ahead, releasing
a major upgrade to Win4Lin that gained rave reviews, and even made it onto shelves at CompUSA.
Still, not everything was good news in Linuxdom this year. The economic woes (yeah, back to that) brought down media darling
Eazel, not to mention the debian-based Stormix Linux distribution. We also watched as
Dell, who had for a time supported Linux on the desktop, decided its Linux support should remain
in the server arena for now.
Economic woes were not all bad news for the open source community however, as many companies
moved over to Linux as a cost saving measure. Governments too considered
migrating, not only as a cost saving measure, but
also a security one as worms such as Code Red gave everyone a much needed reminder that, yes, we do need secure systems.
Okay, now let me turn the spotlight over to you, dear reader. What do you think the big open source events of the year were? Tell the world your take on things in the comment section below.
Timothy R. Butler is Editor-in-Chief of Open for Business. You can reach him at tbutler@uninetsolutions. com.