What does the future hold for Linux?

The guys at Tuxradar created a survey about the future of Linux.  The folks at Linux Insider did a nice job of wading through the comments and trying to distill what people think the future of Linux is.  The write up is pretty good but of course Joe and I had  to put our spin on it in the podcast.  Since no one really knows what they future holds. I mean who saw Goggle buying Motorola Mobility 5 years ago.  So check out what we thought in the podcast. 

My next car will run Linux????

The Linux Foundation announced this morning that Toyota has signed on as a sponsor.  The Linux Foundation promotes the use of Linux.  So we can only assume that Toyota is going to start, if they aren't already, using Linux in some of their cars.  

This could take "WiFi war driving" to a whole new level.  Imagine your car mapping open access points along your route to work.  Then creating a mesh like network so that you could keep running Pandora or last.fm through the car stereo without having to worry about the data caps on your cell provider.  Stuck in traffic no worries just fire up a browser on the console and surf to your favorite YouTube videos while you wait.  People laughing at a video from Comedy Central could really help with road rage.

Seriously though it makes good commercial sense as even the closed source operating systems like the one from Microsoft that powers Ford's Sync need major modifications to meet the configuration needed in a car.  So starting with a free, open and stable operating system like Linux is a start on nearly equal standing.  I am not sure I would want a moded version of the kernel for my car like there are for Android Phones.  They could have the potential to get even better gas mileage or longer runs on the batteries for the Prius.

What do you think Toyota is going to do with Linux in their cars?  Let us know in the comments.

Application Installers Unite.....

According to this article we found, meetings are starting to happen and people are trying to move towards a common Application Installer. So their could be the end of the "My package manager is better than yours is" debates?  Well it's a bit early to tell but it does sound like the big distros are talking about settling on a common package format.  If they do go forward with this we can only hope that it's adoption moves faster than LSB(Linux Standards Base).  It would definitely go a long way to help adoption of Linux as a platform.  For instance, only seeing one line on download pages like Windows and Mac have would help newbies or people thinking about trying linux be less afraid.  When you can create app stores that only have to carry one type of package they become a lot easier to create.  We here at linuxinstall.net hope that every linux install will get easier over time.

What do you think?  What problems will one package format have?  What hidden benefits are there?  What hidden problems?

Look out Big Business is going Linux....

In case you have been hiding and ignoring the Linux news, surprise, surprise, Linux is growing inside of large companies.  The Linux Foundation with the Yeoman group have done a survey to prove it.  The most interesting fact to me was that most of the growth or the largest amount of growth were in greenfield/new installations.  This has very positive long term consequences since most companies tend not to switch to a different OS after getting a system up and functional.

Linux Foundation has announced the Keynotes for LinuxCon

LinuxCon the Linux Foundations Linux conference will be held in Boston August 10th - 12th.  They have announced the who will be keynoting for them.  The names include the founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center, Eben Moglen.  Stormy Peters, he is the executive Director of the Gnome Foundation.  The most interesting presentation in the list though is Jeffery Hammond, Principal Analyst for Forester Research.  He will be presenting recent data that shows increased developer adoption to open source platforms, frameworks and development processes, as well as greater awareness of IT Management about the benifits of mixed source development models.

Check out the article on linuxjournal.com and the actual press release at the linuxfoundation.org website.