Everyone knows that Microsoft owns the desktop - it’s a proven fact - but the last three years have been quite an eye opener to the community of the slope the desktop kings are slowly sliding down. The merging of Apple’s OS with Pentium hardware puts it smack in Microsoft’s territory, and the emergence of several specialized but very similar desktop Linuxes produced by the Ubuntu project warrant a serious look by everyone (except the hardcore gaming community).

Everyone knows what a Macintosh computer is. Apple has been well-known to produce extremely stable machines that perform exceptionally well. They are usually used by those in the multimedia industry, they’re hard to beat when it comes to professional sound and light shows, and putting OS X on Intel hardware has brought the Mac closer to the teeming masses that are Microsoft’s foccaccia and olive oil. What really interests me though is what Ubuntu is doing. This particular distribution is relatively young but has made quite a splash in the OSS community and beyond. Looking at what the folks in the University of Latvia are doing quickly shows why.

The first (and most stunning to me) thing I found was a surprisingly complete and comprehensive starter guide. The guide covers everything, and I mean everything, from simple usage of the desktop menu to installing a spam filter on the mail server of its server edition. Most people will only need a small amount of the documentation provided, but being in HTML format means it’s easily searchable using the search method in your browser. Number two: The number of interoperable but specialized versions available, from the aforementioned server version, to a version using the KDE Desktop instead of the Gnome desktop for a more Microsofty look and feel, to an educational version meant for everything from typing to mathematics to the Periodic Table of the Elements. This would be useful right from grade three through university, and can be had for free, shipped right to your door, eliminating the need for a high speed connection. Upgrades are offered for free over the Internet as well, with a simple point-and-click interface. This would be the equivalent of someone at Microsoft sending you a free copy of Windows XP, and allowing you to upgrade to Vista for free.

It’s been quite clear to those in the industry that a new way of using, supporting, and thinking about software had to happen and it looks like the Ubuntu people are the ones taking the initiative to pioneer a working business model for the future of the software industry.

I sure hope the music industry is watching.

[Jason Cutting]

[tags]linux,open source,ubuntu,gnome desktop,jason cutting,kde desktop[/tags]