Linux in 2009: It's Good to Be Free

Filed in archive News on January 1, 2009

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 3411173

As a new year dawns, InternetNews' Bruce Byfield has written an excellent article looking at the world of Linux in 2009.

"The consensus seems to be that 2009 presents more opportunities than difficulties for FOSS (free and open source software)," he writes.

Byfield says the Linux Foundation's Jim Zemlin "sees Linux and the FOSS ecosystem surrounding it as having insurmountable advantages in any market over its main competitor Windows - advantages that an economic downturn only intensifies. At a time when a search for the lowest possible price point is happening in such areas as notebooks, FOSS is available at no cost."

"The general agreement among experts is that not only is FOSS well-equipped to face the recession of 2009, but that those who adopt it will be better off when the hard times are over," Byfield writes.