Editorials
By SD Times News Team
October 1, 2006 —
(Page 1 of 2)
Why is Microsoft’s Windows so successful on the desktop, and why is Linux such a distant also-ran? There are many reasons, but one of them certainly must be Microsoft’s longtime devotion to software developers—both enterprise coders and those who work for partners and other software companies.
Many years ago, an evangelist at Sun gave his company’s nascent developer portal what, to him, seemed to be glowing praise: “It’s almost as good as Microsoft’s.” If you want to write software for Windows, whether it’s based on .NET or Win32, or is for Windows XP or Windows Vista, Microsoft makes it super easy. It sponsors books and coding challenges. It has an excellent Web portal in msdn.microsoft.com. It produces top-quality events like Tech-Ed, the Professional Developers Conference and WinHEC. In its MSDN Universal subscriptions, it provides developers with tools for a bargain price, including runtimes of just about every enterprise and consumer platform. It preaches and teaches around the world. And developers have flocked to its banner.
What about Linux? There are lots of tools, such as the GNU toolchain from the Free Software Foundation, Eclipse and some others. But nobody has made supporting Linux developers a priority. LinuxWorld? It’s not for developers. JavaOne? It’s platform-agnostic, focusing on Java, not on Linux, although many Java EE applications are deployed on Linux servers. Red Hat? Ubuntu? Novell? IBM? Nobody focuses on evangelizing to developers, teaching developers, embracing developers, loving developers.
They leave that job for Microsoft. And so Microsoft gets the developers, and the developers develop for Windows.
There are few tangible barriers to deploying Linux onto enterprise desktops. Horizontal business applications, such as Office suites, e-mail clients and standards-based Web browsers, are there. The cost is attractive. The user interface is friendly, and the need to recompile the kernel is minimal. Support is easy (assuming you can find knowledgeable technicians and administrators—it’s not been a compelling career path).
For Linux to expand its reach onto the enterprise desktop, key stakeholders, from the Open Source Development Labs to the major distributors to historical supporters like IBM and Oracle, have to reach out to the Linux software developer. That means building an infrastructure, and a long-term commitment, to making the developers their new best friend.
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