Open Source’s 7 Lucky Forecasts for 2011

Well, nobody gets tired of making predictions, or at least thinking of what the future looks like. Predictions were made for several technological categories like Security, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and a more generic forecast on Information Technology as a whole. Similarly, we can never stop thinking of making forecasts for one of the most loved technology solutions in the world - Open Source.

So, here are 7 lucky predictions that could be made for Linux or the Open Source community as a whole:

Android here, there & everywhere

By the looks of it, Android seems to not stop growing in terms of its apps and hence nothing will stop it from being the number 1 - sort after Smartphone OS, even with Apple’s iOS giving it a stiff competition. There is not a doubt in my mind that this will happen sooner than later and one of the major reasons for this would be the involvement of open source in the development of apps in a large way. Therefore, the forecast is that Android will become number 1 by the end of this year.

Android in Tablets too

As expressed in the above point, the existence of Android is not just limited to Smartphones. With the presence of more Tablet makers in the market, there has slowly risen another platform for OS players to compete for. And it seems as though the winner here too, could be Android. The simple fact which leaves Android dominating Apple is the availability of a diverse choice of Android Tablets as against Apple’s iPad. There is clearly no guesses as to who could rule the roost during 2011 as far as the Tablet market is concerned.

Ubuntu and Linux leap into mainstream

Some steps taken by Ubuntu finally can give Linux the much needed recognition in the mainstream arena by leveraging its existence into the desktop and mobile devices market. A joint effort of the new Unity interface and the Wayland graphics system shall happen, which will make Ubuntu the “first true Linux for the masses”. Along with this the research on context-aware computing conducted by Canonical will help promote this effort even more. This shall ultimately result in its successful debut in the Tablet market. A fantastic year is expected for Ubuntu in this year.

Dual-Booting on the Rise

There has been much spoken about the launch and use of a dual operating system which apparently is expected to increase the pace of the system along with its performance. Systems would also have Linux Dual-Booting processors in them during 2011. Google’s Chrome-based CR-48, for example installed Ubuntu on it and there will also be Tablet makers like Acer and Augen who shall offer the Dual-Boot option.

Open Drivers shall Increase

With Broadcom joining the Linux Foundation, there shall a decent amount of Open Drivers being produced in the market. The debut of an open source driver for AMD’s Ontario Fusion chip was just the beginning and there are many more anticipated in 2011.

ARM chips in PCs

It does not hurt at all to make a forecast on the fact that ARM chips shall find their place in PCs given the growing popularity of Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, which don’t require the expensive horsepower that Windows does.

Oracle vs. OpenOffice.org Fiasco

Oracle was the big bad boy for the Open Source community in the last year. First, they raided the Hudson project by claiming that they owned the trademark, next sued Google over Java, then pulled the plug on OpenSolaris, caused the launch of numerous forks and also was responsible for Apache Software Foundation’s separation from Java SE/EE Executive Committee. OpenOffice was one such Open Source product that was forked. The replacement for the same came in the form on LibreOffice which has received ample accolades from many Linux distributions who have already pledged to include it instead of OpenOffice, and the Document Foundation has exciting plans for it in 2011.