[clug] Software Freedom Day was Re: Declining attendance?

[steve jenkin]

The Desktop O/S Wars are over, but for some the Battle still rages.

Just as the Mainframe Wars raged for decades and now there's just two
left (IBM, Unisys). But Mainframes aren't dead, IBM increases system
sales every year, still . [measured in 'running images'].
Anyone who tells you Mainframes are relevant or 'interesting' are
kidding themselves. There are US Unis that still teach MVS/COBOL to
serve this market.

The Server & Webserver Wars were over at least 5 years ago. Linux won
the SOHO, ISP and Public Internet server markets.

Linux didn't just win, but did a slam-dunk in the embedded Internet
appliance market. [Think routers, firewalls, NAS, Media Centres, ...]

POSIX (Linux, FOSS, OS/X) will be the Last Man Standing in Desktop, the
same way that most public Internet servers use Apache or a FOSS webserver.

The Tablet/smartphone/mobile-device market is where the current action
is, with the Maker crowd ramping up to be The Next Big Thing.

The important thing there is the 2 main players (Android, iOS) are POSIX
with public & free-to-use programming interfaces.

I got a wake up call on this over the weekend talking to a security
expert about my Desktop question:
  Why bother? Get a tablet dedicated to the App.

So, I'm not surprised Software Freedom Day went by without notice here
in Canberra.
The Desktop O/S War is over, we won :-)


cheers
steve

AIA for top-posting.

========================================================

Mike Carden wrote on 15/10/12 10:53 AM:

> On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 10:43 AM, Robert Edwards <bob at cs.anu.edu.au> wrote:
>> (seems that nobody in Canberra
>> could be bothered with SFD this year - myself included).
> 
> 
> Wow, SFD was a few weeks ago and I totally forgot it was even on. If
> fact I don't even recall discussing it at an LA meeting like we
> usually would. And I'm not aware of anyone around the country asking
> for LA funds to do anything for SFD.
> 
> That's a far cry from when Chris Smart and I were trying to outdo each
> other giving away distro CDs at a Computer Fair.
> 
> I wonder what's happened?
> 


-- 
Steve Jenkin, Info Tech, Systems and Design Specialist.
0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
PO Box 48, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA

sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin