The pieces of the puzzle are coming together. I predicted a while back that */Linux on ARM would invade the “personal computing” space including notebooks and desktops. The Chromebook has been produced in strength and millions will ship this year, but on x86. There are rumblings that Android/Linux will soon be multi-user and SJVN observes,

“Microsoft is fumbling its Windows 8 introduction, if ever there was a time for Google to introduce an Android desktop, this is the time.”

see Desktop Android? Multi-user Android support is on its way | ZDNet.

Probably in time for Christmas there will be Android/Linux systems shipping on every kind of PC, including ARMed ones. That should kill “8″ in its crib. That should end retail lockout of GNU/Linux everywhere. That should bring us a competitive market instead of monopoly.

“the amount of money the government has budgeted for buying proprietary software licences will be lowered to 750,000 euro, a reduction of 25 per cent compared to last year. "We will use these savings on further developing Platino. And we’re strongly encouraging the use of OpenOffice."”

see Canary Islands' government increasing and encouraging open source use | Joinup.

What are you waiting for, Canada? The longer you wait to switch to FLOSS for IT, the deeper the hole you will have dug with M$’s spade… Now is the time to switch to GNU/Linux and FLOSS applications. I recommend Debian GNU/Linux because it works for you and not for M$ and “partners”. We taxpayers demand efficient use of our taxes. Get on with it.

For decades, M$ has enslaved all of its customers, “partners” and ISVs (Independent Software Vendors). They have all been enlisted to prop up the monopoly in PC operating systems. The ISVs, while supposedly independent, were made dependent by offering “inside information”, special APIs to give advantages over competitors, lots of software-creation tools and, of course, backwards compatibility. M$ did not do any of that to aid ISVs but to aid M$.

Now, M$, inspired by Apple’s success in making walled gardens lucrative, is shortening the chain of ISVs making applications for “8″. As observed by Rex Djere,

“the openness of GNU/Linux is becoming very attractive to PC game developers as the see the Windows 8 market coming”.

Some ISVs will see M$’s “market” as a tax they don’t need to pay when there’s no such tax on GNU/Linux operating systems.

see TLWIR 43: You Know That the GNU/LInux Shift is Coming When the Eggheads Start Conspiring.

Prices may not be sufficient motivation for gaming ISVs to shift allegiance but performance is hard to beat. Do gamers want their PCs searching for malware on every seek or phoning home? I doubt it. Restrictions on applications for “8″ could be just the beginning of the end of independence and game developers don’t need or want M$ managing their businesses.

Many other sorts of applications may draw their ISVs into this revolt. ISVs that recently looked upon that other OS as a licence to print money may well see that dependence as a ticket to being uncompetitive. After all when Android/Linux is hot and GNU/Linux heating up, no ISV wants to be shut out of new markets which could be several times larger than Wintel. The world loves small cheap computers and ISVs need their applications to run on them. “8″ won’t be a ticket to ride.