Linux Will Never Take Over the World

Eric Fleming
Eric Fleming
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In a previous article, I went over the reasons I feel Linux Is Poised To Take Over The World. In this article, however, in the interest of fairness (and because I myself am uncertain as to my actual opinio
n on the matter), I will go over a few reasons that Linux Will Never Take Over The World.

1. Accountability

One of the great strengths of the open source model is that no single person is in charge. If I am a fan of a certain program, and I decide I like what it is doing, but am afraid development isn't going quite how I would do it (if I were in charge), it is perfectly legal, and I am perfectly within my rights (assuming I have the skills), to take the source code of that software, make the changes I wish, and distribute the program as my own, effectively "forking" the original piece of software into two similar, but not identical, projects. A good example of this is Compiz, which is a project designed to add a bit of "bling," or "eye candy" to the Linux desktop. About a year ago, a user decided Compiz just wasn't quite good enough, and forked the project, thereby creating Beryl, which was similar, but had the features deemed "missing" in the original. After a year apart, the two camps of developers decided their goals were actually quite stable, and rejoined into one project.

 
 
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