First Linux took over in the supercomputers space, then Linux moved into the dot com space of internet servers and finally about the year 2000 Linux started to be deployed as the operating system, of choice in embedded systems. Now, in an exclusive podcast interview Linux evangelist Jon “Maddog” Hall says the Linux desktop era is upon us.

“The desktop is actually the last place that Linux has to go and it is going there,” says Maddog, as he prefers to be called. “People are using Linux now for thin clients, in manufacturing desktops, in point of sale desktops, in educational systems and things like that and it’s being used more and more by people who are saying it’s just too expensive to manage all these licenses.”

Contrary to what Microsoft Linux spokesman Bill Hilf says about Microsoft’s purported dominance in the server space, according to Maddog that battle has already been won by Linux.

“Linux is winning in the server space. Microsoft is gaining market share there but it is not to the detriment of Linux,” says Maddog. “It is to the detriment of systems like MVS, VMS, the proprietary systems and also some commercial Unix systems. But Linux is also winning market share in those spaces too. In the future people are going to find that, except in some very specific applications, it’s going to be either Linux or some Microsoft system. Where I think Linux is going to win out is not in total cost of ownership it is in the return on investment if people can change the source code to meet their needs. “

In the desktop space, Maddog dismisses suggestions that Linux still faces challenges with usability in areas such as the installation of new applications.

“I don’t think that it’s Linux itself that has to do work in that area. I think it’s the people who create the applications that you want to install,” he says. “I myself use a well- known distribution on my laptop and every piece of software that I need is already pre-installed. If there is something else to be installed, it’s like any other software that you get. It’s the application vendor that who has to make it easy to install that. I think the mechanisms are there with Linux to make it easy to install but a lot of the application vendors are free software and they want their software to run not just on Linux but on BSD or OS/X or all these other systems and they haven’t taken the time and effort to make it easy to install on Linux....more