[Am-info] NYTimes.com Article: One Small Step in Uphill Fight as Linux Adds a Media Player

[gene.gaines@gainesgroup.com]

The article below from NYTimes.com 
has been sent to you by gene.gaines@gainesgroup.com.


Another step in taking Microsoft, the bully, down to size.

gene.gaines@gainesgroup.com


/--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\

THE CLEARING - IN THEATERS JULY 2 - WATCH THE TRAILER NOW

An official selection of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, THE CLEARING
stars ROBERT REDFORD and HELEN MIRREN as Wayne and Eileen Hayes - a
husband and wife living the American Dream. Together they've raised two
children and struggled to build a successful business from the ground
up. But there have been sacrifices along the way. When Wayne is
kidnapped by an ordinary man, Arnold Mack (WILLEM DAFOE), and held for
ransom in a remote forest, the couple's world is turned inside out.
Watch the trailer at: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/theclearing/index_nyt.html

\----------------------------------------------------------/


One Small Step in Uphill Fight as Linux Adds a Media Player

June 28, 2004
 By STEVE LOHR 



 

GNU Linux, the free computer operating system, has had far
more success in winning converts in corporate data centers
than on desktop personal computers. But as more
user-friendly software makes its way onto the Linux
desktop, the free operating system is starting to make
progress in its David-vs.-Goliath competition against
Microsoft, the dominant power in PC software. 

Another step in the progress of Linux in personal computers
will come today, when two large Linux distributors, Red Hat
and Novell, are expected to announce that they will ship
the media-playing software of RealNetworks in their Linux
desktop products. 

RealNetworks, founded by Rob Glaser, a former Microsoft
executive, was the early leader in software for playing
digital music and video files sent over the Internet. Its
media-playing software competes with Microsoft's Windows
Media Player. 

That rivalry has become an antitrust issue, and the
European Commission ruled in March that Microsoft was
illegally using its Windows monopoly in PC operating
systems to try to control the market for media-playing
software. The commission ordered Microsoft to offer a
version of Windows without a media player - a ruling
Microsoft is appealing. Yesterday, the European Commission
agreed not to enforce a deadline of today that would have
forced Microsoft to sell the unbundled version in Europe,
while a court in Luxembourg considers the matter. 

RealNetworks had previously reached distribution agreements
with TurboLinux, which is strong in Asian markets, and Sun
Microsystems, whose Java desktop software runs on Linux. 

"Linux is making rapid progress on the desktop, and this
makes our technology the de facto standard for
media-playing software on Linux," said Dan Sheeran, a
senior vice president at RealNetworks. 

The media software, RealPlayer 10 for Linux, represents an
evolution of RealNetworks' embrace of open-source software.
Under the open-source model of development, the source code
is published and shared by programmers, who modify and
improve a program. Two years ago, RealNetworks started an
open-source project, called Helix, mainly to develop
media-playing software for devices like cellphones and
digital music players. RealPlayer for Linux builds on
Helix, but also includes some proprietary software formats
known as codecs, for compressing and decompressing digital
music and video files. 

Open-source advocates are trying to get the same kind of
self-reinforcing cycle working for Linux that Microsoft has
nurtured for years around Windows. The more popular the
operating system becomes, the more applications are written
to run on that operating system, which in turn makes the
operating system still more popular. 

Linux has a geeky heritage - an operating system developed
by engineers for engineers - and it has been embraced first
by technicians in corporate data centers rather than on the
desktop, where acceptance depends on developing
applications that ordinary PC users find appealing and easy
to use. 

But open-source supporters hope that the RealNetworks
announcement will be followed by others. "We think this is
a great example of the many mainstream products that you
will see made available much sooner than most people had
expected for Linux on the desktop," said Stuart Cohen,
chief executive of the Open Source Development Labs, a
group established to promote the use of Linux and other
open-source software, which is backed by several technology
companies including I.B.M. and Hewlett-Packard. 

For the Linux desktop, a number of applications are already
available and more are in development. These include word
processing, spreadsheet, database presentation, e-mail and
Web browsing software. "For 80 percent of the people in the
world, Linux is now a perfectly fine desktop environment,"
a leading open-source advocate, Bruce Perens, said. 

Linux distributors like Red Hat, whose chief executive is
Matthew J. Szulik, make money charging for technical
support and software beyond the basic operating system. The
RealNetworks move is evidence that leading commercial
software companies believe that Linux is poised for rapid
growth on the desktop, said Mike Evans, vice president for
partner development at Red Hat. 

Though Linux on the desktop is making gains, it has a long,
long way to go to challenge Microsoft, which has built its
PC stronghold over more than two decades. By the end of the
year, Linux will be running on 1 percent of the desktop
PC's worldwide, compared with 2.8 percent for Apple's
Macintosh, and 96 percent for Microsoft's Windows,
according to Gartner Inc., a research firm. Linux does far
better overseas than in the United States, and most
analysts expect that Linux is on track to overtake
Macintosh over the next several years. 

"The Real announcement is important to improving the
overall Linux desktop experience," said Michael Silver, a
Gartner analyst. "But Linux on the desktop is still
relatively small. There is a lot of interest in it, but
it's not mainstream." 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/28/technology/28linux.html?ex=1089421640&ei=1&en=ff95d9532cb01f78


---------------------------------

Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine
reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like!
Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy
now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here:

http://homedelivery.nytimes.com/HDS/SubscriptionT1.do?mode=SubscriptionT1&ExternalMediaCode=W24AF



HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters 
or other creative advertising opportunities with The 
New York Times on the Web, please contact
onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media 
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo

For general information about NYTimes.com, write to 
help@nytimes.com.  

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company