Linux may be free, but that doesn’t mean that the products and services built on it can’t sparkle.
That’s the message from Jim Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation, who looks ahead to a brisk period of growth and improvement in the language as it spreads into a greater array of mobile and cloud-based applications.
According to Zemlin, the recession has in some ways been a boon for the open source operating system, as more entrepreneurs and IT executives have begun to appreciate the value proposition Linux offers.
Linux Planet talks to Zemlin and hears his thoughts on the future of the open source Linux OS.
Where is Linux headed? That’s a question the Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, is focused on as his organization gears up for the Linux Collaboration Summit this week.
In Zemlin’s view, Linux is strategically placed at the intersection of a number of major IT trends that will serve to bolster adoption of the open source operating system. With the increasing growth of the mobile Web and cloud services, Zemlin thinks Linux will end up the big winner.
“These trends were not started by Linux, but Linux really is an enabler,” Zemlin told InternetNews.com. “Could Google be the company they are today if they were written on [Microsoft’s] .NET? Could Facebook? The answer is no, you need an open platform that you can own yourself, modify, customize and scale.”