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April 13, 2007 Digg | del.icio.us | Facebook | newsvine | Reddit
Perhaps Windows and Linux Will Switch Places
I recently watched two pro-linux ads that spoof Apple's well-known "Mac versus Windows" marketing campaign. In one of the ads a young lady playing the role of Linux mentions that there are over 30 million Linux users, a number which is sure to grow significantly over the next decade, especially amongst average users.

What does a future where Linux becomes a major player in home computing look like?

I attended a lecture last year where it was noted that because the source code of Linux is so widely available, hackers have ample opportunity to develop new techniques for accessing a system's kernel. To me, it seems logical that an increase in the prevalence of Linux is only going to make the problem worse, at least for a while. All this is will be going on while Microsoft's code remains proprietary.

In today's world, Linux is mostly for servers. But in tomorrow's, should sysAdmins switch to Windows?

So many people, especially in the developing world, will know how to use Linux, and so many of them will be programmers capable of hacking into another computer; it seems inevitable that, barring more effective and systematic thwarting of hackers - especially better regulation of ISPs in places like Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia - it will become much, much more difficult to manage Linux servers. This alone will make Windows a more attractive alternative for sysAdmins.

Think about this - if we eventually live in a world where Linux is the OS of choice for most homes, why not rely on a proprietary, "obscure" OS for serving data? What hacker is going to spend his/her time trying to crack a system whose source isn't open?

A couple months ago I installed a trial version of Windows Server 03 on a machine where I work, and I can't say that it's awful. I'd prefer Linux, but this machine is plenty serviceable. And if using Windows means less hassle when it comes to security, I'd just assume bite the bullet.

By no means do I think this role reversal is certain, and I certainly would prefer that open source software become as safe as possible. But the possibilities are intriguing.