Google propels Linux to the top

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/google-propels-linux-to-the-top/

by taylorbuley • 12 years ago

51 57 12 years ago

I do agree with what the article states, but I feel the author misses on a key point.

Google was based on linux and grew around it. As Google grew, they needed more linux boxes and started to develop more. They built their entire infrastructure around linux OSes and contributed most of their knowledge back to the open source world. Examples: MapReduce, GFS,... Google build it for internal, people redevelop for open source, and therefore Linux grows in usage.

However, the growth in Linux could also be attributed to the boom in software/app development which theses days mostly runs on Linux anyway. Think of a big-name web or app company that doesn't use linux. Not too many I can think of.

CanSpice• 12 years ago

I'm not quite sure what AngularJS, a JavaScript framework, has to do with Linux.

coreymgilmore4• 12 years ago

touche...removed.

sebnukem2• 12 years ago

What is the Linux market share across all platforms?

coreymgilmore4• 12 years ago

Take a look at this wiki article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_system... Basically: desktop wise linux is small, but smartphone/tablet it is huge.

Also, Mark Shuttleworth closed Bug #1 for Ubuntu: Microsoft has a majority market share. It really depends on how you count market share though. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1

jessaustin2• 12 years ago

ISTM that bug should not have been closed. From the bug:

    Steps to repeat:
      1. Visit a local PC store.
      2. Attempt to buy a machine without any proprietary software.

These conditions still obtain.

jordigh2• 12 years ago

Meh, Android is a locked-down OS that happens to use the Linux kernel. ChromeOS is a crippled internet-only OS that happens to use the Linux kernel.

Sure, this makes a lot of people have "Linux" in their hands, sort of, hidden away where they'll never find it and where it doesn't matter. I'm not sure this is much of an "open source" victory.

sounds2• 12 years ago

It's fairly straightforward to root your Android handset.

For a ChromeOS device it can be even easier: just download an installer, turn off the physical safety switch or screw, and you're running a full linux distro.

Still you have a point that it's hidden away. That could be seen as a plus for some: they don't want a Gnome or KDE experience. ChromeOS appears to be filling a real market niche.

_cbb13• 12 years ago

The fact that you need to root Android negates the meaning of using a Linux OS.

Consultant32452• 12 years ago

It's currently better than it has ever been with in the open source movement as it pertains to mainstream computing. Never before have so many consumers had so many devices with so much open software under the hood. Of course it may not be what you hoped for, but it's hard to argue it's not better than it was, say, in the 90s.

olalonde• 12 years ago

It is an "open source" victory although possibly not a "free software" one. A lot of people actually believe that open source and proprietary software both have their "raison d'être" and that it's all good if they form a symbiotic relationship (think of git/Github for example). Richard Stallman obviously disagrees with this as I suspect you do: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point....

0xdeadbeefbabe• 12 years ago

"obviously" is an understatement :)

Linus counted android as a victory in this video where he swears at nvidia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MShbP3OpASA

mikevm• 12 years ago

Most people will never find Linux just like they will never find the NT kernel. What is important for most users is the outer shell -- not the inner workings.

The more the Linux kernel is used, the more contributions and bug fixes it will have from companies that use it. This might also mean better hardware support -- which we all benefit from.

jordigh2• 12 years ago

What is important for most users is the outer shell -- not the inner workings.

Exactly, so if the shell is a bunch of non-free restricted crap or is under the control of someone else in a remote server... what's the point? What practical difference does it make to a user to be running Android or iOS? What difference does it make to them if there is an invisible Linux kernel underneath?

sroerick• 12 years ago

Everyone says how great Google is for Linux, but nobody talks about how good Linux is for Google.

Not that I think Google is exploiting the free software movement or anything, but Google would have never had a chance with Android without the Linux kernel. The Google play stack is the opposite of a free software victory.

I'm tired of hearing all the things Google has done for Linux. Maybe we could talk a little more about how free software has facilitated the growth of one of the top tech companies on the planet.

lutusp• 12 years ago

I'm tired of hearing all the things Google has done for Linux. Maybe we could talk a little more about how free software has facilitated the growth of one of the top tech companies on the planet.

I think the case can be made that both are true -- Linux desperately needed a way to win public acceptance, Google needed an unencumbered foundation for various projects.

Also, we mustn't forget the snowball effect -- when an operating system gets to a certain point in installed base, it becomes the operating system. All signs are that Linux will get to that point, and Google will have been one of the primary reasons.

dTal• 12 years ago

While this is generally true for many of Google's activities, had Linux not been available they could probably have used a BSD-licensed kernel for a mobile OS, as Apple have done.

jkn• 12 years ago

This is quite unfair.

Android has had a huge impact on the phone market in terms of openness, for manufacturers as well as for end users. I took advantage of this when I put CyanogenMod on my phone using the unlocking tool provided by HTC. I didn't even think of doing something like that with my pre-Android phones.

If you choose to buy a locked-down Android device, blame yourself and then blame Linus: he's the one strongly objecting to distributing Linux under the GPLv3 license, because he dislikes the very clause that would guarantee your freedom to tinker with you device's kernel. But even if every Android was as closed as a TiVo box, it would still be an open-source victory. It would just be a victory more relevant to the manufacturers world than to the users world.

Chrome OS device are similarly hackable, each Chromebook having a switch to turn on Developer Mode. I took advantage of this to run a Debian chroot in my Chromebook's linux system.

More generally, I find it ironic that people complain about Android and Chrome OS not being "real Linux". For years we have had flame wars about Linux vs GNU/Linux terminology, and now people say that Androids and Chromebooks don't really run Linux because they are not anything like a GNU environment. Turns out the Linux vs GNU/Linux distinction is actually useful.

Pxtl3• 12 years ago

I'm constantly surprised at how Google drags its feet with getting Android out to more uses. I mean, we've seen 3rd-party hardware manufacturers sticking Android on All-In-One PCs, netbooks, HDMI sticks, mini-PCs, video-game consoles, etc. Even Android support for tablets came out well after manufacturers had released hundreds of Android-based iPad clones.

In spite of its various UI failings, android is well-positioned to be the next Windows, and with it the Play Store could take over the world. And yet Google sits in their hands and sticks to phones and tablets.

noir_lord• 12 years ago

My experience is any time I've seen Android on anything not a phone or tablet it has pretty much sucked.

I think splintering the platform before they are ready might be risky.

Also you mention that Android support only came out for tablets after manufacturers had proven the demand for them...seems like a good idea to me.

Zigurd5• 12 years ago

Android is already 60% of all interactive devices: http://www.telirati.com/2014/03/who-makes-how-many-of-things...

Google was correct to focus on dominating handsets. If you dominate handsets, you dominate devices as a whole.

Android also has a very strong position in embedded UI in "appliance" devices.

There is an argument to made that Google sucks at marketing tablets, and gave iPad too big a lead in the market. But overall execution is hard to find fault with.

Pxtl3• 12 years ago

Devices sold each year is not the same as devices in use at any given moment. Because of the break-neck pace and carrier subsidies, consumers replace smartphones faster than anything else. So obviously you're going to see fewer set-top boxes, portable gaming devices, notebooks, etc. devices being sold. But Google doesn't care how many Android devices are sold, because they don't make a dime from sales. They want the OS to be used.

__abc• 12 years ago

Ugh ... the prose and overall writing style .... not for me.

seabrookmx• 12 years ago

And the content..

Android is the most popular mobile platform?!? Who knew?!? /s

Wohui• 12 years ago

Yeah, I couldn't find the words initially for why he rubs me the wrong way. Self grandeur and verbosity can be tolerated. Fanboyism can be tolerated. But verbosity from fanboyism (for a kernel)... well....

_cbb13• 12 years ago

Linux is easily the most used OS for servers. Linux has been at the top for awhile, just because the consumer doesn't run the OS natively doesn't mean that they are not using Linux machine. I disagree that google "propelled" linux to the top.

cgh2• 12 years ago

No, Windows is if you count individual deployments. Any big enterprise runs countless Windows file and print servers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_system... (look at the second, smaller table)

_cbb13• 12 years ago

Accordingly W3 Tech...http://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/operating_system/al...

ForHackernews2• 12 years ago

Android/Linux is not the same as GNU/Linux.

From the perspective of users, a proprietary userland with a free kernel is not meaningfully different than an entire proprietary OS.

By this article's logic, OSX is a massive victory for FLOSS because, hey, it uses the XNU kernel.

Shebanator• 12 years ago

True enough, but the article's main premise was that Google's products propelled Linux to the top of the OS heap. That only indirectly benefits FLOSS.

ForHackernews2• 12 years ago

the top of the OS heap

Fair, but again to be specific, Linux isn't an OS--it's a kernel. When people talk about "Linux" as an OS, they typically mean some variant of GNU/Linux: RedHat, Ubuntu, Debian, etc.

Android (as promoted by Google) is not a member of that club. Maybe ASOP is, but more and more of Google's development effort is shifting to Play Services, and away from ASOP.

rkuykendall-com• 12 years ago

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the next big Linux distributer: Valve.

I had my doubts about how well SteamOS would do, until recently when the Unreal and Cry engines were opened to licensing and both touted SteamOS support as a major current or upcoming feature. People seem to be taking this seriously.

FD3SA• 12 years ago

Mark my words, SteamOS will do for the desktop what Android did for mobile.

maguirre• 12 years ago

I hope you are right. There are two reasons I still interact with windows: 1- Work 2- Games

Zigurd5• 12 years ago

There is an interesting symmetry there: ChromeOS is taking traditional notebook form factor devices away from Windows. Steam OS might do the same for gaming PCs. With the high price of current-generation consoles, people will increasingly ask "Why not a PC?"

jsnell• 12 years ago

[ChromeOS] is gaining ground faster than any operating system ever has, thanks to dirt-cheap hardware and an amazingly simple interface.

Citation seriously needed on that. I'm not aware of any sales figures on ChromeOS, but at least the usage numbers still appear pretty pathetic, 3 years after the launch of the first commercial devices. By what useful and publicly available metric would ChromeOS be growing faster than any OS ever?

cryptos• 12 years ago

What a bullshit! The user has no idea that there is a linux under the hood and the user cannot use the power and freedom of linux. Would Android be a proprietary system nobody would care (besides some cyganogenmod users). So Android is not about linux from the end users view point.

Google propels Linux to the top

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