The 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) just finished its annual flagship event in Las Vegas. Known as the biggest show in electronics, it’s covered by mainstream press and technology bloggers with relish. Keynotes, product announcements, parties, celebrities… CES has it all.
You’d think CES would be a good indicator of the major technology trends in electronics. But Linux at CES? That’s unlikely to show up in your RSS reader. Heard any your friends talk about how Linux is taking over CES? No? Me neither. But don’t get fooled. While Linux is nowhere at CES, Linux is everywhere at CES.
A little digging will pull up some good online information. Doc Searls, Senior Editor at the Linux Journal, does a list each year. This year’s version covers 35 different devices. There is also some specific information around product announcements that (may or may not) include Linux, like Palm’s new WebOS reported by Ars Technica and others. But that’s the point exactly. Linux is now so widely deployed and ubiquitious as a technology choice for running devices and powering applications, it’s now not even news. It’s in practically “everything else” other than servers.
Linux itself didn’t have a booth at CES this past week and didn’t organize a high-powered, star-studded evening reception for all the Linux users at CES. If it had, the booth would be have been full of a mountain of consumer electronic devices debuting this past week. Here are just a few, and I mean just a few, of the great devices based on Linux shown at CES:
1. Web based TV’s from LG, Sony, and others
2. Wifi enabled cameras from Sony
3. Palm’s new Linux based phone
4. HP’s new Mini 1000 netbook
5. Linux based IPTV’s power Netflix online, etc.
6. Devices based on the Moblin project from Intel.
It may soon be easier to list up the devices that don’t use Linux, rather than those that do. This the year of the Linux “everything else.”
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The way that all these commercial vendors are keeping Linux under the radar is not a positive sign at all. It’s a sign of timidity and perhaps of deceit, because Redmond still has the industry’s short hairs in a tight grip, and way too many commercial vendors still regard FOSS licenses as nuisances to be ignored as much as possible. Keeping Linux a big secret is a big slap in the face— look at how marketing works, every little thing is trumpted to the skies to generate excitement and consumer lust. Intel inside! We recommend Microsoft Windows! (Because we are paid to and scared not too.) Etc….this deliberate stuffing of Linux into the cellar with the other crazy aunts is a very bad sign. Especially when Linux brings such a multitude of positive benefits to end users–more secure, lightweight, flexible, open and accountable, no spyware or malware, etc.
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Re: Barb Franklin
Face it. The Emperor has no clothes. Everyone is paying lip service to Microsoft. Yet the are still creating, testing and manufacturing products that are running Linux. Everyone in the industry knows it. When you set there with a loser device that did not sell, had low margins due to Microsoft licensing and always runs buggy. Then you look and see that your competitor is building a stable, highly profitable device with Linux. What do you think they are going to use next? Microsoft is becoming less of the logical choice for these devices.
[…] The Year of the Linux Everything Else A little digging will pull up some good online information. Doc Searls, Senior Editor at the Linux Journal, does a list each year. This year’s version covers 35 different devices. There is also some specific information around product announcements that (may or may not) include Linux, like Palm’s new WebOS reported by Ars Technica and others. But that’s the point exactly. Linux is now so widely deployed and ubiquitious as a technology choice for running devices and powering applications, it’s now not even news. It’s in practically “everything else” other than servers. […]
The above comment is one interpretation of their action but another is they perhaps perceive Linux as a strategic advantange and they don’t want to let their competitors know about it.