Linux Not The Savior For Our Economy by Mitchell Ashley, NetworkWorld, PC World

[Shippou]

Please read this article:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/148595/linux_not_the_savior_for_our_economy.html

I think this is an overzealous one, but has some truth to it.

Judge for yourselves.

[grossaffe]

was there ever any doubt? I mean I like linux and all, but savior of our economy?

[ad_267]

I have to agree with a lot of that article, but I think if you look at it from a more long term perspective, a slow but steady increase in Linux use by businesses would increase the number of linux developers and users familiar with linux applications and would eventually be beneficial to business.

For small businesses the situation is also different and a switch to Linux could be advantageous.

[MaxIBoy]

I think they both have good points, but they both are going too far. The truth lies somewhere in between.

[Bachstelze]

SJVN having a good point? That would be something new! I quit reading his gibberish years ago but I'll go see that one, sounds like fun.

[L815]

Some of the points make sense for SHORT Term gains, but LONG Term, I think Linux would be beneficial.

[Shippou]

I just hope that when Linux do become somewhat more dominant than today, there will only be minimal vulnerabilities exploited and minimal malware as compared to the Windows world.

[ShodanjoDM]

"Our economy" is an over generalization on both articles. Maybe not so much for the US economy, but for other nations, especially developing and third world countries, Linux can save a lot of unnecessary licensing costs.

[grossaffe]

I just hope that when Linux do become somewhat more dominant than today, there will only be minimal vulnerabilities exploited and minimal malware as compared to the Windows world.

I figure that if viruses start to become prevalent in the world of linux, that it would be just as easy to use another operating system for browsing the net (say, FreeBSD).

[songshu]

it might be in the short term for a few companies with a tight budget, provided you have the people to do it for you...

in the long run, every economy will benefit if there is competition in the market place, this will be good for innovation which will create more jobs and it will be obviously good for customers since the value for money will increase.

so yes, linux (or any other) can be beneficial for the economy, although it will not save the world.

[ad_267]

I figure that if viruses start to become prevalent in the world of linux, that it would be just as easy to use another operating system for browsing the net (say, FreeBSD).

It is not just because Windows is so widely used that there aren't many viruses for Linux. The much stricter file permissions mean that users can only mess up their home directories and there are other reasons why Linux is more secure.

Of course users will always do stupid things. There's no stopping someone posting a script online and saying run this as root.

[coolglobal]

PCworld does two things, it provides information and it sells advertising. These things are linked. The information it provides is there as a vehicle to promote products. What product is it promoting in this "article"?

clue: its all in the last lines