回望2011年的Linux
如何安装 Google Chrome OS
回顾:Barnes & Nobles的Nook Color进入Android 平板电脑
五个最佳的桌面Linux发行
Google Linux ChromeBook 是 Windows 杀手的五在理由
Sun CEO 明确表示赞同在Android中使用Java:Oracle你现在想说什么?
......
这些都是很好的故事,可以说是年内最具意义的故事。它们激发了我总结2011年Linux最重要故事的灵感。以下是我的列表:
5) GNOME Forks
5) Gnome分支
4) The Decline of the Linux desktop
4) Linux桌面的衰落
3) Ubuntu changes directions
3) Ubuntu改换方向
2) The rise of Android and ChromeOS/cloud computing
2) Android 和 ChromeOS/云计算的兴起
1) Patent Wars
1) 专利战争
具体内容请见英文原文。
转载请注明:Linux人社区> 英文资讯翻译专版.编译
英文原文:
The Top Five Linux Stories of 2011
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols | December 29, 2011, 10:46am PST
Summary: 2011 was a big year for Linux, but then what year isn’t a big one for Linux these days?
Taking a look back at Linux in 2011
Just like with networking, I looked at my five most popular Linux stories of the last year,
How to install Google’s Chrome OS
Review: Barnes & Nobles’ Nook Color goes Android Tablet
The Five Best Desktop Linux Distributions
Five Reasons why Google’s Linux Chromebook is a Windows killer
Sun CEO explicitly endorsed Java’s use in Android: What do you say now Oracle?
and while they’re all fine stories, I can’t say that they’re the most significant stories of the year. They did, however, inspire me with the ideas for my list of 2011’s most important Linux stories. So, with no further adieu, here from least to most important, is my list.
5) GNOME Forks
(略)
4) The Decline of the Linux desktop
(略)
3) Ubuntu changes directions
(略)
2) The rise of Android and ChromeOS/cloud computing
For more on that look at where Linux is kicking rump and taking names in a new and growing end-user market: smartphones and tablets. Yes, Apple is still the number one tablet maker, but the Android-powered tablets are catching up fast and on smartphones, Android is already number one with a bullet. Windows? It’s barely an afterthought here. The mobile future belongs to the Linux distribution we call Android.
At the same time, Google thinks those of who will still be using desktops in the future will want to use a cloud-based operating system that uses Linux as its foundation: ChromeOS. Google is betting that you’re going to want a Chromebook for your PC needs in the future. I think they may be right. There’s a reason why not only Google, Ubuntu, and openSUSE is looking into this. Apple, with iCloud, is also exploring it. I don’t see the old desktop going away quickly but I can see cloud-based, end-user alternatives catching up more quickly then you might have thought even a year ago.
One thing I am sure of though, tomorrow’s end-user computing experience is going to be powered by Linux one way or the other as the legacy Windows systems start to dwindle away.
1) Patent Wars
Remember when people who weren’t in the know thought that SCO, with its bogus Unix copyright claims was danger to Linux? I do, I covered the heck out of that story since, while I knew from the start SCO didn’t have a case, other people thought SCO actually was on to something. Today, however Linux, open-source software and indeed all programming development faces a far more dangerous intellectual property (IP) threat: the granting and mis-use of bad software patents.
Companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle have all used patents to threaten Android devices’ very existence. In the end, these lawsuits will fail. Not because they lack merit-in a world when Apple can get a patent for using apps during a phone call anything goes-but because Google, et. al. will sue them right back with their own patent portfolios. As Microsoft knows all too well after its defeat by i4i, they can be stung by patent lawsuits just as much as any Linux vendor.
Sooner or later I expect big business will get sick of wasting hundreds of millions of dollars suing and countersuing each other to no good purpose. That won’t be the end of it though. Patent trolls, who have no real business of their own, will still collect patents and then sue the companies as soon as they actually do something useful with patented ideas. That will mean higher prices for all of us since end-users are ultimately the ones that pay the patent trolls blackmail money. What’s even more troubling s that some patent trolls are now targeting small businesses. Google and Samsung can afford to defend themselves, a small business? They can’t.
This isn’t just a Linux issue, it’s bigger than that. If we expect real programming innovation, software patents must be discontinued. That, alas, is something we may not see this decade… if ever.
Taken all-in-all, though, it was a great year for Linux. Whether it was supercomputers, big data or smartphones and tablets, Linux keeps growing. By this time next year, Red Hat will have become the first Linux company to have recorded a billion dollars in earnings, and, if you count all users on all devices, it just might be that Linux will be the number one operating system of all.
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