Linux and Open Source: The 2005 Generation - Page 2

Were already seeing this trend start with Firefoxs success. I think Thunderbird, the Mozilla e-mail client, is going to start making similar, albeit not as dramatic, in-roads on the Outlook Express market.

Thunderbird, however, since its a pure e-mail client, isnt going to knock Outlook off of corporate desktops anytime soon. But once Mozilla Sunbird, the open-source stand-alone calendaring and task management application, gets up to speed, I can see companies turning from Outlook to Thunderbird and Sunbird.

I even see Microsoft Office, perhaps the most bloated software suite ever, finally losing ground. Thats because Suns open-source OpenOffice.org 2.0 is looking very, very good.

Not only does it have excellent Office file format compatibility, its finally become a fast application. Ive used OpenOffice for ages, but Ive never warmed up to it. Its always been too darn slow. With this last pre-beta, though… woo! Look out Microsoft Office, OpenOffice means business.

And so does open source in 2005. No, you may not be running a Linux desktop at years end. But Im willing to bet that most of you will be running at least one open-source program on your desktop and that in the back-office youre going to be running open-source applications on Linux servers.

The revolution has arrived.

eWEEK.com Senior Editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has been using and writing about operating systems since the late 80s and thinks he may just have learned something about them along the way.

Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest open-source news, reviews and analysis.