.comment: Working Today Trumps High-Powered Vapor
By: Dennis E. Powell
Monday, August 14, 2000 09:04:31 PM EST
URL: http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/opinions/2186/1/
The Sky is NOT Falling
The KDE developers mailing list has been abuzz over an article in The New York Times saying that on Thursday IBM, Sun Microsystems, and others will throw their support behind Gnome as the standard Linux desktop.
"Woe is me, all is lost" was the general tenor of the discussion.
Nonsense.
It's a good thing whenever big companies with lots of money show an interest, especially a financial interest, in Linux. And it would not be a good thing if by so doing they would get into a position where they could dictate such things as the standard Linux desktop. But they can't.
The guts of the Times story: IBM, Sun, Hewlett-Packard, and some others will establish a thing called the Gnome Foundation. Sun will begin shipping Gnome as the desktop for Solaris. IBM will ship Linux and Gnome on some Thinkpads.
Let's look at this a little. IBM is already offering Red Hat Linux. Hewlett-Packard is already doing things with Red Hat Linux -- look among their downloads and you'll find support for their hardware not on Linux but on Red Hat Linux.
The share prices of Linux distributors that have gone public are not in particularly good shape. The big flow of money into distributors has slowed. Red Hat spent a lot of money on Gnome development. The formation of the Gnome Foundation assures continued support of the project.
But let's step back and put the whole thing into historical perspective. Remember when IBM and Apple joined to produce a wonderful new operating system? Anybody remember it? Anybody remember its name? Anybody ever actually use the thing? How about the wonderful new microkernel architecture that would run on absolutely every processor in the world? It was going to sweep the market, IBM told us seven or eight years ago. How's that project coming along?
Sun bought Star Office and will GPL it. Good. Sun (and IBM) are interested in putting applications on the web; you log in and use them. Given IBM's stated policy, that everything should be written for Java, and the fact that Sun owns Java, even if the Gnome Foundation produces anything, it could well end up being a very pretty Java launcher for Linux. If anybody has reason to be afraid, it's probably the current Gnome developers.
The article also notes that the purpose of the foundation is to mount a challenge to Microsoft Office. Hmm. And who in the consortium has a working office suite? So we're going to see Star Gnoffice? That's bound to delight those working on the embryonic Gnome-native office applications, don't you think?
I suspect that what we're seeing here is an announcement to stockholders in IBM, Sun, Hewlett-Packard, and the others that the companies haven't missed the Linux boat. This would, of course, have been far more effective a year ago, but big corporations tend to be circumspect. They're powerful, but they're plodding, too. And the money involved, which will probably be huge by Linux standards, is pocket change to the companies. Consider the amount of money that IBM alone has squandered on failed projects. Anybody remember Signature, the easy-to-use version of XyWrite that was developed by IBM and XyQuest, and abandoned about 15 minutes after it was released? (I say "squandered," and that's really not fair, anymore than money spent on car insurance during a period when you have no wrecks is money squandered. It's hedging their bets.)
All that having been said, the announcement in the Times is very good news. For everybody.
Here Today or Here Tomorrow?
The reason that the announcement should make everyone involved in Linux happy is that it means that a bunch of big companies are saying that in their opinion Linux is or can be an excellent desktop operating system. This is something that we users have known for years, but now, with the Gnome Foundation announcement, some really heavy hitters are putting their weight behind that view. The old cliché that Linux is of use only as a server may now be put to sleep. That alone is cause for great rejoicing.
What the announcement, which will be made formally tomorrow at LinuxWorld, does not justify is panic among other Linux desktop developers, by which I mean KDE. Go out and buy a Linux distribution. It will either have KDE as an option or as the default desktop. (Well, not Debian, but the last time a Debian distribution was released, KDE wasn't very far along, was it, the Debian view of KDE notwithstanding.) If the announcement encourages people to get and install Linux, it's going to be good for everyone, with KDE being the unintended recipient of much of the good will. Why? because people installing, say, Caldera eDesktop will see KDE right off the bat. Half of them will probably think that this is Gnome -- all they'll remember is that it had a kind of weird name, and it doesn't take much looking to find reference to Troll Tech, and Trolls, Gnomes, what's the difference?
The ones that do remember the name Gnome and go looking for this great Microsoft killer will be, uh, puzzled.
And this will all become even more pronounced in the coming weeks, with the release of KDE2. It is highly object-oriented. It has a decent office suite that is getting better all the time. It is very stable. It is an order of magnitude ahead of Gnome in maturity. I do not wish Gnome ill, but facts is facts, as they say.
Here's hoping that the Gnome Foundation funds good work, and that the results are great. But those results are currently vapor. KDE2 isn't. It's not done, but it works and has for months. The big news in the Times today and at LinuxWorld tomorrow is likely to whip up interest in Linux, right now. People will look at Linux as it exists, not as it might exist in a few months, a year, whatever. Fortunately, Linux is up to the scrutiny. It has some problems, which will be considered in this space on Wednesday, but it's certainly a great desktop operating system, right now, today.
And it's getting even better.
So the announcement that a whole herd of big computer companies are throwing support to Gnome is good for Gnome, probably, and certainly good for everyone else in the Linux community. It means that Linux will be taken more seriously than ever before.
For the KDE developers, this is not a setback. It's an opportunity.