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What Linux Will Look Like In 2012 (InformationWeek)

[Posted August 14, 2008 by cook]

Serdar Yegulalp ponders what will happen with the next four years of Linux development in a lengthy InformationWeek article. "In the time it takes most college students to earn an undergraduate degree -- or party through their college savings -- Linux will continue to mature and evolve into an operating system that non-technical users can fully embrace. The single biggest change you'll see is the way Linux evolves to meet the growing market of users who are not themselves Linux-savvy, but are looking for a low-cost alternative to Microsoft (or even the Mac). That alone will stimulate enormous changes across the board, but there are many other things coming down the pike in the next four years, all well worth looking forward to."

(Log in to post comments)

Posted Aug 15, 2008 5:04 UTC (Fri) by dvdeug (subscriber, #10998) [Link]

You know, it's really really bizarre to have 2012 be just four years down the road instead of
the far future as it was for so many science fiction writers over the years.

What Linux Will Look Like In 2012 (InformationWeek)

Posted Aug 17, 2008 17:36 UTC (Sun) by dark (subscriber, #8483) [Link]

I haven't even gotten over it being 2000 yet :)

What Linux Will Look Like In 2012 (InformationWeek)

Posted Aug 18, 2008 6:50 UTC (Mon) by bockman (subscriber, #3650) [Link]

I would expect things not changing too much in 4 years:

Linux will be used in more embedded devices. OTHA, it will be harder to install standard distro on vintage computers.
Fancy desktops with cool 3D effects and transparency will be the standard in most distro (maybe even Debian stable :-). I will continue to use Ion WM + Rox FM on my linux laptop and my linux TV box (hoping they still will work).
People will get used to WinWista wirks, as they have to WinXP. Faster hardware will help compensating for slower software,
Linux and OS X will continue to share the desktop minority crowd ( this is actually optimistic, since I believe now OS X is gaining on Linux ).
Linux users will continue to enjoy the freedom and flexibility of their OS and to suffer for unsupported hardware problems

See you in four years to see how close I am :-)

What Linux Will Look Like In 2012 (InformationWeek)

Posted Aug 29, 2008 13:42 UTC (Fri) by forthy (guest, #1525) [Link]

I find it a bit funny that "by 2012, we'll be able to configure Linux without command line stuff". I've done that for years now with SuSE; the normal configuration doesn't need a command line. If you do something more special and complicated, you'll still need the command line in 2012, but not for a normal desktop user.

My prediction for the next four years is that Linux will be mostly on not-quite-computers, i.e. netbooks, smartphones, multimedia stuff like PVRs and BluRay players, where it already is today, but a lot more of the same (and hopefully a lot more which respects the GPL). This is a real danger to Microsoft, since the not-quite computers by then will be good enough for most people.