Linux and Windows - Was There Really A War?
One thing that has been constantly pinching me is the perception found in the industry that maybe Linux and Windows are at war or members of both camps are in competition with each other. This is one area where I would like to make a clarification that there is no war nor competition and there never was unless Microsoft camp perceives that on its own which is a very usual anticipation from that camp.
Linux was founded out of hobby by Linus Torvalds and Windows by a company for commercial purposes. Yes, when the Linux Kernel or GNU/Linux was picked up by various commercial vendors and corporations, a competition clearly emerged in the corporate world of business and industry globally between today’s giants like Red Hat, Novell, Microsoft etc.
Linux or FOSS continues to evolve from community collaboration into Commercial Grade and Market Ready Products of wide acceptance. Almost every computer user today uses FOSS in one form or the other unknowingly. One small example is that all Internet Messengers whether Skype, MSN, Yahoo or Google Talk, use the same communication engine that was originally developed in FOSS and is based on open standards. Another small example of FOSS is that the Internet makes wide use of such “free” and “open” protocols including various kinds of communication software to enable the Internet the way we use it today.
To tell you the truth, if there was a competition, the loosing camp would definitely not be Linux or the FOSS world since FOSS is what enables both the Linux and Internet world of wha it is today. The Linux or FOSS community itself is not in competition with anyone, it only works towards helping realize its ICT Software Freedoms and the flexibility of learning, building local skills and innovation that can be embraced through such a community software development model. For gossip, yes the world will continue to say that there is competition between Linux and Windows, only to help more people realize that there is another operating system other than Microsoft Windows and in the future Vista.
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