Robert Pogson

Matt Asay and others have estimated the effect Google has on adoption of GNU/Linux on the desktop as small because most businesses have drunk the Koolaid and simply have a more difficult time switching. This argument neglects the fact that businesses are not monolithic. In any business with some size, there are folks who do not need that other OS to operate. Thus, a business can easily migrate some portion of staff to GNU/Linux. Whether it is worthwhile depends on the costs of supporting another OS and what fraction of the staff are the target. With centralized management of PCs which almost all large operations use, managing a second OS is hardly a concern and any operation large enough to have “departments” and vice-whatevers will have some department that could go to GNU/Linux.

Google may not be poster-child for GNU/Linux adoption on the desktop but it gives a clear signal to business that FLOSS is an option they should take seriously. For more than 10 years early adopters have been doing that and winning. Now it is a more routine process. We know GNU/Linux on the desktop is growing rapidly in deployments if not share and most of those deployments are in business because most users of PCs at home do not install operating systems. Google has simply been the most visible of late.

I have recently installed Google’s Chrome Browser on PCs here as well as the Google Desktop search widget. Both are tidy solutions to problems of using a desktop. Chrome OS is the next step. If I had a local browser-accessible word-processor, Chrome OS would be a no-brainer. TinyMCE does not cut it at the moment but it has most needs in word-processing covered. For 90% of what teachers do, we could use Google Chrome OS. Students, however, need lots of interactive programmes for learning: games, database-stuff, tutors, etc. that we just do not have web applications. As well, teachers need to control students’ use of PCs so it makes sense to put teachers on GNU/Linux terminal servers, so thin clients for students work. Chrome OS does not fit either teachers or students well now but it will in a year or so. Time to revisit the topic then. We can use GNU/Linux very easily now but our IT needs are simpler than many businesses that have locked themselves in.