Linux Operating System Works Because it Fails

What will really spur Linux's success on the desktop can be summed up in one word: failure. Linux will succeed because it fails, and this is why.

Linux is not only free to purchase, it is free to develop. Linux, or as Richard Stallman likes to say GNU-Linux, was started by Linus Torvalds writing in his free time, as well as Richard Stallman and the guys at Free Software Foundation (FSF) doing the same and voila, an OS is born. Linux, GNU, and all the other projects that go into most distros now receive assistance in the form of personal donations and financial and programming assistance from corporations, but even without all this support, the codebase will always be there for somebody to pick up, dust off, revive, and continue the quest for success on the desktop. Essentially, Linux can afford to fail.

This is something no company can boast. Failed commercial operating systems, like Amiga, OS/2, etc, have little to no chance of revival because the companies behind them have either gone out of business or given up on the project. This results in the code being under the lock and key of the IP owner until the unrealistic possibility occurs for the software to make a profit. As time passes, this becomes more unlikely since the code is not being updated.

Not only can Linux survive its own failure, but your favorite distribution can survive the failure of Linux. Don't believe me, check out XFree86. It used to be a standard for Linux distros and BSD in supporting any serious graphics. Then, most distros started to have problems with the project. They complained that new features and the support of new graphics cards, were slow in development. Then one day, the XFree86 project decides to change the licensing of their software. The distros revolt and support a fork of the project called X.org. Now X.org is the standard in most distros. This type of interchangeability is possible with any part of what distros consider standard, including the Linux kernel itself. Even now, there is a readily available version of Debian that uses the HURD kernel.