Although in full turmoil, since the recent announcement of the return to Microsoft by the city of Munich, the GNU/Linux operating system has nevertheless distinguished itself in a notable way, for its topicality during this year. Particularly dense in terms of technological evolutions (Kernel 4.14 LTS, progressive transition of distributions and desktop environment under Wayland and so on...), the free alternative fascinates and is now the object of devouring passion in the computing sphere of the web. This new focus of attention comes from an ever-expanding community scene that works to make the use of distributions more accessible to the general public. New interfaces, simplicity of use without automatically resorting to the indispensable shell, compatible game productions or games worn by major players in the industry, the recipe has hit the mark and seduces more and more users. That is not all, because while we can welcome this guideline and its efforts addressed to all, two new ones have been a milestone in 2017.
This may sound ridiculous at first glance, but the growth of Linux's adoption of office automation systems has taken a quantum leap this year. Based on figures announced by netmarketshare, an online platform that analyzes software usage and o. s., for the application market, Linux's presence on home PCs increased by 1%. So going from 2 to 3%. Nothing alarming for the big corporation of Redmond or Apple, which respectively represent 89% and 8% of the world's IT assets. However, this is encouraging news that suggests a long-term perspective for the development of this use. Although the figures date from August, we can observe that this one remains stable, stagnating around 2.4%. Quite a step forward since its inception!
We must not forget that more and more users are concerned about their security and opt for an open source solution. An increasingly palpable crisis of confidence that serves the interests of proprietary systems, to the benefit of alternatives such as Linux or FreeBSD.
Due to the strong demand for hybrid or cloud servers, the company behind RHEL, Fedora or CentOS, announces an increase in its turnover of more than 20% over the last quarter. According to CNBC: Between September and November, the company generated $748 million in sales, an increase of 22% over the same period last year. Subscription revenues related to server and desktop infrastructure offerings reached $495 million (+15%). Applications development and other emerging technologies accounted for $162 million (+44%).
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/19/red-hat-earnings-q3-2018.html
Although confined to a market linked to the server market, it is good to see that a decisive company in the field of open source generates revenues and profits. This will certainly allow the whole thing to be re-injected into the development of the free system.
Yes, the year 2017 was an excellent vintage for GNU/Linux. Will 2018 be a decisive year for free software? The analyses and figures are quite enthusiastic and there are still so many development projects. Will this be enough to attract even more users on this platform? If the future of free and open-source continues on this path, there is a good chance that the future will be radiant and that an ethical leap and mass awareness will occur. Unveiling a radiant future where technology will be transparent to everyone!
