Linux, ‘At the End’ of its PLC – Is that a Joke?

There have been several occasions where I have written about Linux and I remember most of the stuff that I have written reflects on how good Linux has been and the kind revelation it has brought about in the software world. Some have been on latest open source products like the New Linux Mint 10 and some other on bright forecasts made for Linux; some on its innovative ways of collaborating with private proprietary firms and some on the battle between Open Source and Proprietary Software companies. There seems to be enough proof that Linux has thrown up huge competition to the private proprietary firms.

Amidst this unstoppable growth of open source software products and solutions, there is one private firm which has felt the pinch of heavy competition from several open source projects. Feeling this painful pinch, Microsoft has gone on reports making unnecessary comments and insults at all its free competitors and one of its recent and most confusing comment has come from Microsoft Russia which apparently reads like this - “????? ????? ? ????, ??? Linux ?? ???????? ?????????? ?? ?, ????? ????, ????????? ? ????? ?????? ?????????? ?????”. The comment was made by Nikolai Pryanishnikov, president of Microsoft Russia in Russian language which translates as, “We must bear in mind that Linux is not a Russian OS and, moreover, is at the end of its life cycle.”

Now I have never believed in being partial and taking sides, but such a comment coming from a country which is itself in the midst of an an on-again, off-again affair with free software, makes me have an opinion on this. My opinion - Stating that it is the end of the road for Linux appears to blowing it over-the-roof kind of a comment made by Microsoft. For a company belonging to the stature of Microsoft needs to focus in bringing out competitive solutions rather than running unnecessary campaigns against the open source community. It appears so too for many bloggers who have put forth their views on this unsolicited statement made by Microsoft against the Open Source Software Linux systems.

Some of them quite sarcastically pulled down the software giant with remarks such as, “The idea that ‘Linux is at the end of its life cycle’ is rather rich coming from the vendor of a platform that is increasingly losing market share, both at the top and bottom end of the market, while Linux just gets stronger.” Another sarcastic criticism pulls a pun stating that it is surely the end of road for older Linux systems and time for newer and better open source systems to hit the road. Continuing on the same slashdot blogger mentioned “‘Linux year of the desktop’ horse needs to be taken out and shot, as the war is long over and MSFT won, same as DirectX won over OpenGL.” Apart from this there are also few observations made on Linux’s bright future prospects by Hyperlogos blogger Martin Espinoza who said “Linux still has legs it hasn’t even walked on yet.”

All this support for Linux from unbiased writers only suggests that the open source Linux system shall live on for quite a long time and it is only the beginning now, so why even think of the end?