Linux is going to dominate the Operating System of the future. This has been said for many years now, but sometime these things take a bit longer then those directly involved might think. The ideology of Proprietary Software, Copyrights, Trademarks, and Patents goes very deep. I see these as similar social values as slavery, civil rights, freedom of religion, government by the people, freedom of the press, etc.
A little study will find that liberalization of Proprietary Software, Copyrights, Trademarks has always been for the common good. Recent studies have shown many benefits of relaxing these controls. Linux is such an example, so are Wikipedia, Libraries, Google, the Printing press, and etc. Things are moving so fast now it's hard to keep up with exactly where we are. Wikipedia for example is a world altering event on the scale rarely seen, giving people access to information for free. Little thought has went in to exactly what it is going to do to us. As the cost of computers continues to drop, mobile networks advance across third world countries. A wave of information is sweeping across the world. What Operating System are they going to use?
Microsoft, and Apple (supported by Microsoft) have dominated the market so far because capitalism rewards those who play within their limits. They used Bank investment to lock up their information and their contributions to society in order to collect capital, shares in the controlling systems, fiat money. Much more success can be made in Freedom.
Freedom is good because it allows more variation. The more things people try the more successfully things there are to try, the more people share the more things there are to share. This is why Linux (or more specifically the Free Software movement) are inevitably going to succeed. With the rise of Brazil, Russia, India, and China Free Software is going to acquire users at an exponential rate. In the software world users drive success, not necessarily paying users. The more people writing code for Linux, the better it will become. This is independent of how much money it makes. This wave of Technology and information is going to cause a wave of Super Intelligent Super Programmers (SISPs), and they are not going to be working for Microsoft, they are going to be adding to the Linux community. Everyone has seen how well children adapt to technology. We are a long way for children programing VCRs.
My 4 year old Daughter has a Netbook that she uses to surf Free Educational Game websites, watch Hulu, and play the many Free Education Games available through Linux. This creates a base knowledge that will be easily built upon and I easily see my children learning programing languages at times when the mind is much more innovative. Learning programing language at a time when the brain is well adapted to learning language. This is a pattern that will follow Technologies advance. Success begets success, information begets information, and the more people know the more they can know.
The ideology of many social values goes very deep, but time has always shows a progression to more progressive forms of social values. With the exception of the Fall or Rome Western society has always tended toward liberalized social values of freedom and Technology. This is a recurring pattern that, excluding a societal collapse and regression to fundamentalist religious values, can be predicted. Gay Marriage will eventually be given the same regard as same regard as Miscegenation and Integration. Genetic Manipulation will eventual be given the same regard as Makeup and bikinis. Living entirely virtual lives, to air travel. And Free Software to Libraries. Sharing information is Freedom, freedom is good, and freedom will be rewarded with success.
Linux goes hand and hand with Media Piracy, information will be shared or stolen but it will always spread. For $380 I now have a Linux box driving my 48" Plasma HDTV. This gives me access to every movie, every song, every bit of information made available on the Web for the price of an internet connection. Music and Movie priracy is illegal now but just like libraries this will eventually change, but the pace of progress is increasing. Regardless of law information sharing will continue at exponential rates. There is a lot of money to be made by sharing data for free. Data should always be free, but experience comes at a price.
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