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Rethinking the Linux Distribution? 213

eldavojohn writes "ONLamp.com is running an interesting article about rethinking how the community distributes Linux and the open source applications that often come with Linux. The author isn't arguing that Linux needs to become a full blown web OS over night but instead, asking if the community should be considering 'Software as a Service' and what he means by that is perhaps many of the open source applications that run on Linux should be available through a browser. The reasons for this are obvious, the code is open so anyone could host it, it would be platform independent so anyone could use it and it might attract more users to the Linux environment. The obvious note here is that many of the enterprise software makers are switching to Software as a Service, shouldn't the open source community investigate the possibility of a Web OS?"
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Rethinking the Linux Distribution?

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  • webos (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 13, 2007 @11:34AM (#19104597)
    WebOS: Another blathering buzzword for industry gurus in the 2000s. Thank f***ing you, Google.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Tuoqui ( 1091447 )
      WebOS it sounds like a cereal... HEY GUYS GET YOUR WEBOS! BTW Parent is not really flamebait. I hate how they keep randomly making buzzwords

      All kidding aside... NO, Linux should not reconsider its distribution method. Software as a Service (SaaS) is not a very popular method with small and medium businesses as well since it tends to contribute into vendor lock-in.

      SaaS is all about 'renting' your software. This is what Microsoft and other big companies are trying to do. Make you have a monthly bill for Vista
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        Agreed. Software-as-a-service is built on the fundamentally flawed concept that if a company has a continuous revenue stream, they will be able to "innovate" more, making more frequent updates. For customers, though, they see ift thusly: with purchased software, if the vendor screws me, I can at least keep using it, but with SAS software, I end up with data that I may not be able to use with any other service, and worse, that I may not even have access to retrieve and back up. As a result of this, consum

      • I agree with you but I wouldnt mind the ability to use my data/programs easily from wherever I am.

        IMAP does the job well for email.
      • by tacocat ( 527354 )

        Right. Software as a Service is a business model for making money. It is not a model for distribution and promotion of a free software or F/OSS

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by marcello_dl ( 667940 )
      Besides, google success in its projects can be misleading.

      Why did people begin to put apps in a web client/server architecture? Well i guess it was a combination of:
      - platform independence for clients
      - no installation problems for clients, no per seats costs.
      - availability over a network
      - programmers starting making sites with html, then using it for GUI web app toolkit:
      - lack of complete control over the interface encourages scalable and accessible interfaces (ALT for images...)

      But many of these are becomi
  • Wait (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Shadow-isoHunt ( 1014539 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @11:34AM (#19104601) Homepage
    Isn't that just moving the application from one linux box(the client) to another(the server)? I mean, no sane person would use Windows to host something like that.... But on a more serious note, a lot of OSS developers don't have the money to smack down on bandwidth and machines just to host their projects - where as Google and Microsoft can afford it.
    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by eneville ( 745111 )

      Isn't that just moving the application from one linux box(the client) to another(the server)? I mean, no sane person would use Windows to host something like that.... But on a more serious note, a lot of OSS developers don't have the money to smack down on bandwidth and machines just to host their projects - where as Google and Microsoft can afford it.

      i thought this first, but it might save some bandwidth in the long run by people not downloading a 600meg cd, then the usual distro upgrades etc, instead they might use 1meg of traffic in writing a letter using software as a service.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        Your comment is semi-irrelevant, they're only using 1 meg of traffic in writing a letter using software as a service once, but a bunch of people opening openoffice over and over and over again? That adds up to be even more bandwidth.... and could you imagine the requirements for the database?
        • It's no biggie, even X doesn't use anything like mb for a window paint or update. The database? Well you'd need a proper global filesystem, but that's no biggie either.

          It's entirely doable. The one issue is network *latency*, not bandwidth, server power or disk space.

           
          • Re:Wait (Score:5, Interesting)

            by mikiN ( 75494 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @02:29PM (#19105739)

            The database? Well you'd need a proper global filesystem, but that's no biggie either.
            What global filesystem? I'll have my data on my personal USB drive, thank you. And while you're at it, make sure that no trace of what I did remains on whatever server whatsoever. I don't want <insert your favorite government organization / hacker clique / whoever> poking around in my personal stuff.
      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by SP33doh ( 930735 )
        well you can use torrents for distributing install CDs, which doesn't take any real bandwidth from the server at all.
    • With Web 2.0 and software as a service, you're not just moving the application from the client to the server, or from the server to the client you're doing something far more bizarre. You're chopping the application in half and moving half to the client and half to the server. I have to be honest, I can't really see a benefit from it over more standard thin client architectures other than "it's what everyone's doing".

      In terms of bandwidth, you'd typically charge. Say $10/month per seat.
    • With Linux, the client and server could be the same box. You could choose whether to install services or whether to use someone else's server.
      • by Coryoth ( 254751 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @03:41PM (#19106301) Homepage Journal

        With Linux, the client and server could be the same box. You could choose whether to install services or whether to use someone else's server.
        And amazingly enough Linux already does this, and it works for every graphical application! You see X11 already has the whole client server system built in, and is even nice enough to use extra efficient methods if both client and server are the same box. You can run your application on another box, however, and have it display on your local display just fine. No need to recode applications to be web based or anything! You might (legitimately) claim that X11 is not so great over lower bandwidth connections (like the internet, as opposed to a LAN), but surely the solution is to spend time fixing X11 (with something like FreeNX which compresses X11 protocols, or creating a new lower bandwidth less chatty X12 protocol). That way you only have to fix one piece of software (the windowing system) and all the existing software will magically work, as opposed to having to fix/change every single piece of software on the system to somehow be web based...
        • by SEWilco ( 27983 )
          I know about X11; I've run X11 through a 1200 bps link. I'm referring to the proposed client/server app configuration.
  • personally, no (Score:2, Insightful)

    by eneville ( 745111 )
    i really would not like to see this. there have been some attempts at making a desktop run as a service, but in all it's not very fast. the only benefit is that the heavy work, like loading of a office suite can be done in someone else's backyard. don't you just hate it when your network goes down?
    • by niiler ( 716140 )

      Agreed. When you have any kind of bandwidth limitations, software as a service just doesn't make sense. For those of you at universities, you will recall that sometime in the beginning of September every year, after a long summer of relatively speedy service, the network suddenly comes to a screeching slowdown as all the students return. The network similarly picks up in May when most of the students go away.

      Additionally, software as a service is open to all kinds of abuse (think how TiVo has gotten

      • For those of you at universities, you will recall that sometime in the beginning of September every year, after a long summer of relatively speedy service, the network suddenly comes to a screeching slowdown as all the students return. The network similarly picks up in May when most of the students go away.
        That's called "poor capacity planning".

         
  • Anyone? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Elentari ( 1037226 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @11:39AM (#19104629) Journal
    "the code is open so anyone could host it"

    Is that a good selling point, from the perspective of a potential client? Browser-based applications always bring doubts about security with them, and a lot of people would be reassured in using servers owned by well-known companies, but I'm not sure how many would be enthusiastic about connecting to "anyone"'s server.

    • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )
      Just who is GOING to host it? IBM and the other for profit Linux venders aren't really interested in giving away their software services free and most open source project developers aren't going to be all that thrilled about having to maintain high reliability servers (or server farms).
    • Re:Anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by kebes ( 861706 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @11:59AM (#19104787) Journal
      Indeed. And there are more than just security concerns from the point of view of the user. I can't help but think that the people who are really pushing for "software as a service" are people like Microsoft, who have a vested interest in keeping control of the application, only letting the user see the GUI. The reasons are obvious: with software as a service, you have automatic customer lock-in, you can charge on a per-use basis if you want, and you don't have to worry about your end users giving copies of the software to friends. In short, it actually achieves for software what DRM and copy-protection cannot: the company has complete control over the software. So, for instance, they can radically change the user interface, or drop support for a file format, and the users can't do anything about it. They don't even have the option of staying with an "old version" since the versions change without your permission. (Google documents currently allow import/export from standards-compliant formats, but really what guarantees do we have for that going into the future.)

      My point here is that big software companies find software-as-a-service attractive, and the only thing standing in their way is bandwidth. On the other hand, open-source software doesn't care about those concerns (lock-in, etc.) so what's the point in hosting it on a server? Why not just have it on my actual computer, thereby giving me full control, and a more responsive application. In a certain sense, open-source should be advertising this as an advantage.

      And I certainly understand that open-source apps have the unique advantage that you can access them *both* on your local machine and (in principle) over the network. This is indeed a selling point. What I'm trying to get at is that open-source should be reminding people of the advantages of actually having local copies of software (source and binary!), and using this as a selling point.

      "the code is open so anyone could host it"
      That's right, since it's open-source, it can be hosted anywhere... including on my own computer.
      • by khasim ( 1285 ) <brandioch.conner@gmail.com> on Sunday May 13, 2007 @12:40PM (#19104999)
        Right now you can run some P2P app on your computer, listen to music and balance your checkbook in between check for new stories on /.

        That's because your computer has a LOT more internal bandwidth than external.

        Now imagine that you're trying all of that online. All of a sudden your multi-tasking box becomes a single-task box as each of those apps tries to share your limited bandwidth. For most of us, it's easier to buy a faster CPU or hard drive than it is to get a faster Internet connection.

        And that's just ONE computer with its own Internet connection. It only gets worse when you start adding more people to your connection.

        And the goal is to do what? Get more people to use Free software?

        The reason more people don't use Free software is that their workstation already has similar apps installed. Why download AbiWord when 90% of the workstations out there already have Notepad and Wordpad installed?
        • Why download AbiWord when 90% of the workstations out there already have Notepad and Wordpad installed?
          Because AbiWord is a word processor and notepad and wordpad do not have many of the features that AbiWord has? You may want to alter your example a little. Comparing AbiWord to notepad and wordpad is an apples and oranges comparison.
        • Now imagine that you're trying all of that online. All of a sudden your multi-tasking box becomes a single-task box as each of those apps tries to share your limited bandwidth.
          WTF? Oh come on. There's only so much screen real estate.

          For most of us, it's easier to buy a faster CPU or hard drive than it is to get a faster Internet connection.
          You reckon? They keep upgrading me for free. 8Mbit now.

           
      • Datacenter costs?
        IT support team costs?
        Software licensing costs?

        What's your cost per seat if you DIY? What if someone will do it for $40/month per seat.

         
  • by Ckwop ( 707653 ) * on Sunday May 13, 2007 @11:41AM (#19104643) Homepage

    I think it would stupid for the AbiWord or OpenOffice teams to down tools and start working on a web-based version of the software. At the minute, a lot of productivity is wasted on browser incompatibilities and AJAX is still rather clumsy in comparison to what it could be. To get even the fairly basic functionality of AbiWord in to a web-app would take far longer to develop than it would for an equivalent desktop application.

    I think the free software movement is doing very well. It's getting somewhere. I've used Windows on every PC I've owned since the Windows 3.11 days. In January I made the switch to Ubuntu on a new PC that I recently purchased. I decided to ditch Windows because I thought that Vista was a downgrade to Windows XP.

    I was frankly amazed at just how good GNU/Linux really is. It isn't just tolerable, it's out and out better than Windows XP. After installation, the machine is usable in that it has all the software I need to actually start using the computer. Windows by comparison has a basic 'toolset' (if you can even call it that). The file system layout is far more intuitive than the baroque drive lettering system. The firewall is simple, powerful and non-intrusive - compare that to Windows based firewalls. Windows Update only supports Microsoft products. Ubuntu provides updates for all software packages it distributes. In short, it feels better engineered, more robust, consumer centric and easier to use.

    Why should the free software movement rethink its strategy when it's just starting to gain traction in a big way? I say keep up the good work! It is no accident that Dell have decided to sell Ubuntu on their machines. This is no longer a hobbyists OS but a baby gorilla eating its way through plenty of fruit and gaining in size all the time. Watch out Microsoft!

    Simon.

    • by khasim ( 1285 ) <brandioch.conner@gmail.com> on Sunday May 13, 2007 @11:52AM (#19104719)
      From TFA:

      Although there are several mature, high quality distributions available, Linux has had a very hard time breaking through in certain markets, such as the desktop.

      Yes, that is because Microsoft has a MONOPOLY on the desktop.

      So don't use Microsoft's desktop monopoly as justification for changing the current approach. Linux has been gaining marketshare. There is nothing indicating that this will change.

      In addition, the internet, which has already dramatically transformed the environment for other content-creating industries, may now alter the established methods for software packaging and installation.

      Yes, it MAY. But it also has it's own, unique, issues. Such as having to rely upon:
      #1. Your machine.
      #2. Your network.
      #3. Your ISP connection.
      #4. The ISP connection of the service provider.
      #5. The service providers hardware.

      When running the same app locally means you have to rely upon:
      #1. Your machine.

      The activities around Web 2.0 are giving rise to Software as a Service (SaaS).

      Yep, he's citing "Web 2.0". Usually, when someone cites "Web 2.0" it means that they're pushing more fantasy than Reality. And that holds true in this instance as well.

      Why trade the reliability of apps installed on your local machine for the complexity of apps hosted somewhere else? Because it's Web 2.0 and it's cool!
      • Heck, I don't think that anyone knows what they mean when they say "Web 2.0." I say, talk about atomic concepts where appropriate. Nebulous concepts, like clouds, serve only to obscure.

        There are a lot of issues with web apps. And software as a service? Given sufficient bandwidth, couldn't you do that with X11 and sshfs? Seems like we are getting to the point where people want to reinvent the square wheel.

        This being said, there are a lot of reasons to go with web apps. LedgerSMB, for example, allows sa
      • This is a 100% no-bullshit serious question: What is the working definition of "Web 2.0?" People throw it around, and it just kind of appeared.
    • Why should the free software movement rethink its strategy when it's just starting to gain traction in a big way?

      I think the author makes a huge error when considering how FOSS can leverage the Web to improve their offering. He ignores the blindingly obvious fact that Linux would never have achieved the great things it has done without the Internet, and especially the Web. FOSS people know - possibly better than anyone else - how the Web works and what it's for.

      With apologies to Marshall McLuhan, I'd li

  • A long time before MIX'07's announcement of Silverlight, I posted an approach I thought Microsoft should take to going "live" with their applications suite as software services. The approach still applies to others who might like to go "live" with software turned to "web" services. Translate from "Ray Ozzie" to "Linus", etc. and it applies to the present issue -- but with a big problem remaining of how to raise money for the prize.

    Here's what I wrote back when there was still hope for Microsoft:

    If I w

  • No thank you (Score:5, Insightful)

    by geek ( 5680 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @11:43AM (#19104663)
    I still work offline often at school. I also don't like the idea of my applications suddenly not working because of a browser update, nor do I like the idea of application developers having to work around browser incompatibilities. I've also never seen an in-browser MSWord like application that could do everything I needed it to. Some come close but google docs comes up short, as does every other one I've tried.
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by costas ( 38724 )
      Well, I think the RTFA has a point, but doesn't quite take it all the way home: the reasons web-based software is popular are simple: no installation/uninstallation hassles, automatic "updates" of the software, network transparency, collaboration, etc.

      There is nothing in that list that restricts that app to be browser-*based*. You can build an offline, desktop-based (but maybe browser-*launched*) app that installs and uninstalls simply, has collaboration features and updates automatically. With VM techno
      • That's I think where Apollo, Silverlight, or JavaFX want to take us; it'd be nice if there was an OSS stack (like the LAMP stack) that matched these capabilities...


        How about Linux / GNOME / Firefox / Java applets? It's been done for ages and found wanting. Any of those three options you listed had better go through and see why Java isn't used for this, and the challenges Java had to get through to go as far as it did.
    • Agreed. While you are at school and see problems with this, it is nothing compared to when networks go out in a large company. In many companies, especially larger ones, if the network goes out for whatever reason, most if not all work stops if it relies on those network resources (it doesn't happen often and you can rail all you want about incompetent admins, but such is life, shit happens). Take large software projects where people can no longer check out code from centralized repositories, or accounti

  • Its all been done (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Bazman ( 4849 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @11:43AM (#19104665) Journal
    So basically you want to run the apps on the remote machine and just use the local machine for display and storage. Hmmmm. Sounds familiar. Sounds like X11 or Remote Desktop doesn't it?

    The only reason for the 'do it in the browser' meme seems to be set up for web this and web that and aren't set up for giving you Windows TS or Unix Shell accounts....

    Oh, and X11 isn't that efficient over a network of course!

    • With X on the client, it's pretty simple to open e.g. OpenOffice or Mozilla on a remote server.

      We used to do this at university, for some serious scientific applications requiring net io or RAM.

      However, we were all used to saving regularly as the X protocol doesn't seem too resilient to brief drops in connectivity. (This is using X over SSH, not XDM).

      X is also very chatty by default, unless using LBX etc, and ssh compression.

      The thing is, 80% of people seem to just use their laptop/computer for browsing t'
    • Oh, and X11 isn't that efficient over a network of course!

      I'd actually like to see X11 improved so that it is more efficient over a network. Even over my 802.11g, there's a noticeable lag. That would be expected, except for the fact that if you consider that if you run an X11 app over something like DSL, it's insanely noticeable. I'm talking about things like web browsing or office applications too, not watching YouTube videos over the network or doing something stupid like trying to play Quake.

  • Irrelevant (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Colin Smith ( 2679 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @11:47AM (#19104689)
    Software as a service is irrelevant to the distribution of Linux. If you're running apps over the Internet, you're not distributing them. It's just another Application Service Provider who btw, mostly use Linux anyway.
  • Let me think... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AlXtreme ( 223728 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @11:48AM (#19104699) Homepage Journal
    No. Next question.
    • by suv4x4 ( 956391 )
      [Let me think...] No. Next question.

      Great, I'll take that as a yes. When do we start?

      - A delusional web 2.0 bubble guy
  • by Coryoth ( 254751 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @11:55AM (#19104747) Homepage Journal
    Why do these "online apps" always have to be delivered "through a browser"? Why not have it delivered "through a network transparent windowing system optimized for internet connections", like say FreeNX? If, for some reason, that's a problem, why not fix the problem at the windowing level rather than keep trying to build everyting into an application that started life as a document viewer. Surely "inside the browser" is the wrong leve of abstractio here?
  • Think before posting (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tony ( 765 ) * on Sunday May 13, 2007 @11:56AM (#19104753) Journal
    Why would we ever want to run our word processor in a web browser?

    Certain applications make sense on the web. Web search engines, for instance. Even maps, and seeking directions from place to place. Basically, anything that takes large amounts of information and makes it readily accessible. I can understand those being on the web.

    But... word processing? Image manipulation? *Why* would I want to do that? What does it gain me?

    Nothing.

    What do I lose?

    Control. If I choose to change applications, or try a new application, I am at the mercy of the host. If the host decides to upgrade, and I hate the new version, I am at the mercy of the host.

    The whole idea smacks of, "Let's do it, because we can!"

    Corporations like Microsoft and Google want us to go that route, because then *they* get to control even more of our lives. But why would *we* want that?

    Collaboration can happen without application hosting. It'd be better if we focussed instead on creating a great P2P collaboration framework, and build that into many applications, such as OOo, or the Gimp, or any other system you might want to use for multi-authored documents.

    But the web?

    Seriously.
  • For those people with a specific application, put it in a VMware appliance, with what ever distribution you need. Access can be via a browser, or over the network, nice and hardware agnostic.

    Other images can be provided for other virtualization services, I'm familiar with the VMware route.
  • Linux would be better off reducing the number of distros than working on some hare-brained 'over-the-web' scheme that couldn't possibly work.

    I'd rather see an official GNOME distro, an official KDE distro, and a 'server' distro that people can install their own stuff on. After-all, Fedora running GNOME is more similar to Ubuntu running GNOME than Fedora running KDE, as far as users are concerned. It's ridiculous to have dozens of distros, almost all of which use one of two (or both!) windowing systems.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by h4rr4r ( 612664 )
      After-all, Fedora running GNOME is more similar to Ubuntu running GNOME than Fedora running KDE, as far as users are concerned.
      But not as far as people who actually care are concerned. Why should Linux pander to the lowest common denominator?

      It's ridiculous to have dozens of distros, almost all of which use one of two (or both!) windowing systems.
      No, it is not. Many have gigantic differences if you know more about the OS than the windowing system you are using. Try a few flavors without X even insta
  • by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @11:59AM (#19104783)
    This "article" reminds me of the old Dilbert strip where the pointy haired boss asks if something currently coded in "C" would be better in "B".

    "The author isn't arguing that Linux needs to become a full blown web OS over night but instead, asking if the community should be considering 'Software as a Service'..."


    "Software as a Service" is 100% a marketing term. Trust me, Mr. Newbie Author, the open source community has been thinking of avoiding desktop deployment for a long, long time - just ask the Apache team or anyone who's ever written a web app.

    "Linux as a Web OS"? I'm not sure you know what Linux is if that's the best thing that came out of your head the last time you toked up.
  • The obvious note here is that many of the enterprise software makers are switching to Software as a Service, shouldn't the open source community investigate the possibility of a Web OS?

    Enterprise software makers do this as a way to increase their control, not because it is in their customers best interest.

    Control is not a motivating factor for OSS. The best solution is. This will usually _not_ be software as a service.

  • I don't know why people persist in coming up with this "Applications in a Browser" thing repeatedly, but they clearly have no understanding of the complexity of most software. Most GUI applications that are basically front-ends can be run in a browser, but the vast majority of rich client stuff like office suits and e-mail clients (There's only so much you can do with Ajax) is just too complex to do that. I mean, does he have any idea how bloody how slow VNC actually is? Running applications remotely is als
    • I have just one point to make. Slashdot and related sites that post these stories provide a forum for presentation of arguements. Anyone researching this subject who ends up on this thread will be presented with a number of insightful points made against SAS in OSS.

      Both posting this story and replying to it are in the interest of community education. Other than that I agree with your comment.

      Regards.
  • You can try one of those WebOS already. EyeOS is one of them ...the thing is that OSS community should start working on this kind of software soon. Fear goes away if we can download and change code for this kind of software. It's not about large companies having more bandwidth. It's about this simple question.. Can we install this software ( OSS ) on our own servers on our local network and then use low power terminals for word processing etc from there?
  • Linux distributions already depend on centralized servers for software downloads and anything that makes sense are hosted on LAMP stacks. As bandwidth increases, CDs and DVDs will be used less. That trend has been ongoing sense the 75 baud modem was invented.
  • Geez... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by alyawn ( 694153 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @12:19PM (#19104887)
    How is this a good idea? I could totally understand this if server hardware were lightyears ahead of desktop hardware. But, guess what, it's not. Should I really be running my word processor on a machine that is hosting tens of thousands of other users at the same time? Add in network latency and guess what, you've got a useless application that no one will enjoy using. I think the only reason Google has had a little success in this market is novelty topped with a little ease of document sharing. C'mon, make webservers be very, very good at sharing documents/files/whatever then you've got a good platform. Leave the user facing applications on the desktop where they belong.
  • Where is it? I know I saw a fancy bootup screen for a linux based Google operating system. I'm sure by now they have tons of features. I mean they basically have an office suite thats web based. They have photo-management functionality, they've got a huge user base (not to mention cash like friggin crazy).... so where is my Goonix! I want the iso ready for installation on my 1gig flash drive so i can take my Goonix everywhere I go!
  • It seems to me there are main driving forces behind moving to software as a service:

    • For the company - the chance to charge ($n x months) instead of $n - replacing one-off income with ongoing income
    • For the user - no longer having to maintain their own box, worry about updates and patches, configuration, malware, etc

    In the first case, why would Linux/OSS developers be interested in this? Generally speaking, it is free (as in gratis) software. They're not in it to maximise profits. Of course, Linux/O

  • Software as a service as in "web hosted" somewhere also means that there is no distribution anymore...

    The practical impact of that means that if I develop a cool web app and someone (a company?) uses it, suddenly they don't have to give the changes they make back to me anymore, which is the goal of most open source/free software licenses.

    I wouldn't like that one bit...

  • Software as a service is more of a means of *controlling* software access, not of allowing more freedom. That's why companies like Microsoft have been astroturfing the idea, as it would give them the complete control they want over how the user can access and use their software. And it would be the death of Open Source, as there would need to be government regulations on the mitigation of commerce across international broundries, so a company the size of Microsoft would not have to run app-servers in every
  • And have everything inaccessible when my network goes down? I think not, thankyou. I'm staying with local applications.
  • by iamacat ( 583406 )
    JavaScript is not the right language to write every application in. In fact for some, like sound recording, C++ is still the best unless you want to also listen to your garbage collection. Python sucks as a system shell - for example, you can not run a program by just typing it's name. Not all Linux users lack privacy and security needs of controlling both their data and versions of their applications. In fact, the whole point of open source is that you can customize apps for your own use as well as inspect
  • by bcrowell ( 177657 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @12:44PM (#19105027) Homepage
    1. He throws in the idea of using python as a system administration language, which has nothing to do with the rest of the article.
    2. The biggest thing that's slowing down linux adoption on the desktop is the fact that most users are not competent to install their own OS -- any OS. Software as a service doesn't help with that.
    3. Another thing that's slowing down linux adoption on the desktop is the fact that users are used to Microsoft's apps. Software as a service doesn't help with that.
    4. ...and people have their files stuck in proprietary formats. Software as a service doesn't help with that.
    5. Software as a service is predicated on the assumption that traditional software costs money, and is a hassle to install. In the OSS world, software is free, and easy to install (e.g., on ubuntu).
    6. Web 2.0 aspires to work transparently on all systems and browsers; that's one of its main attractions. So why does it have anything to do with linux distributions?
  • When system administration is hard, moving it all to a single server and turning the clients into dumbed down thin clients of course can make life easier, but it doesn't fix the problem, its moving it around, system administration still is as hard as ever, only with less machines to worry about. How about instead making system administration easy? Not just a little bit easier, but so easy that installing software is as easy as clicking a link on a webpage. And I don't mean just auto starting 'dpkg -i' once
    • by VENONA ( 902751 )
      Just so you know: installing software isn't always a major part of system administration. It depends completely upon your environment. If you admin a single Linux box, it's possibly where most of your time goes. I've seen other environments where it was so completely overshadowed by things like managing users, storage, and the network, reviewing logs, etc., that softare installation wasn't five percent of the job.
  • by Excelcia ( 906188 ) <slashdot@excelcia.ca> on Sunday May 13, 2007 @12:50PM (#19105089) Homepage Journal
    Yes, it's an inflammatory subject, but it's exactly what needs to happen. "Software as a service" is the wet dream of many corporations right now, because it offers a per use pricing model and offloads an enormous amount of control to the vendor. When their machines run everything, it's DRM heaven.

    Certain software works well as a service. Anything that is inherently multi-user, such as social chat, collaboration, bulletin boards (including the so-called Web 2.0, which is really not much more innovative than the dial-up bulletin boards of the '80s) - all those things work well as a network service. The querying of large databases can work well too, depending on what the data is. Google, encyclopedias, etc. Certain software doesn't. OpenOffice will always work best on the desktop.

    "Software as a service" is a catch phrase the editors here seem to like to push in articles as it riles up those of us who know better and attracts comments. Comments attract more comments, and this pumps up Slashdot. The thing is, this type of behaviour is self-defeating, as while it does churn the butter, but some spills out. Every time you poke a stick into a hornets nest, sure, the hive will get all riled, but some will just get fed up fly somewhere else, and it does nothing to attract new blood.

    So, for everyone's sake, please stop posting crap like this.
  • Don't throw out your hair brained ideas if you can't implement them. If you can implement them, do so and demonstrate why they're a good/bad idea, rather than whining and bitching and hoping someone else will do it for you.
  • Web apps run on the server. The client used to be pretty 'dump' - kinda like a dump terminal used to me... Then with all the enhancements (ajax and all) we have more interactivity. More code on the client to solve the problem with redrawing the whole screen each time... Sounds familiar? Maybe I'm just old, but to me:

    Window manager == Browser windows and tabs
    X protocol == HTTP layer
    X event model == javascript + ajax ...

    So basically, what the author wants is X Window, he just doesn't know it. All around, a we
  • by cunamara ( 937584 )

    Moving to a "software as service" model such as Web applications is a step back to the mainframe days, in which someone else controls the software you use. The benefit of the personal computer was that the software resided on the user's computer, under the user's control. This increased the freedom of the user. The free-as-in-speech software movement further increased the freedom of the user by allowing the user to own, modify, improve and share the software. This can't happen with the "software as serv

  • by wellingj ( 1030460 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @01:08PM (#19105231)
    As far as I can tell the perceived benefit of software as service (or 'web os' as some people cal it) is that it will
    cost less. Well how can you cost less than a distribution like Debian or Ubuntu? Granted another benefit is that
    you can run software as service on less expensive hardware, but come on, are you trying to tell me that a $250
    desktop is too expensive?

    News Fash: Hardware is cheap.
    It's the software that's the expensive part of business. I don't think FOSS should volunteer bandwidth and server
    time like that. Doesn't FOSS already give enough, hosting free software in repositories making it that much more
    convenient to use the software you want at any time?
  • You need an OS to run a browser to run applications in....
    • But with a WebOS (nice name) we can use that OS under an abstract layer, that will run a browser, that will run an OS, with another abstraction layer...

      And if we put a browser on top of that, we'll be even able to surf the web!!!!

  • Change Linux distribution? Make apps hosted in a browser?

    Makes perfect sense to me. A discussion that only smart people who know very well what they're doing, will lead. Not just some random Web 2.0 talk, like most of the garbage out there, which sees only nails, since it just sees a browser, pardon, a hammer.

    Ok, so. Who's porting the Linux kernel to JavaScript? Anyone? We're making Linux hosted, right?

    Guys? Where are you going??
  • by suv4x4 ( 956391 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @01:21PM (#19105325)
    I suggest the first app to port to the browser to be Apache+PHP.

    Once we have the AJAX Apache+PHP, we can run PHP in it, which can generate more AJAX pages.

    In those pages, we can host Apache+PHP again.
  • There are several things that need to change to make Linux ubiquitous. The current "It's free come and get it" concept works for those who want it, but what about those who don't know they want it? I have some ideas for this.

    Back when Quake III Arena first came out, the boxed set came with a copy of SuSE Linux, I think it was 6.0. I thought "What a cool idea, you can buy a game and it comes with an OS that can run it for free." Chances are few copies of that SuSE Linux 6.0 were actually put to use, but
  • Sans writing something in MODERN Java the browser is NOT a good application platform. The tools are mediocre, the applications are slow, and the security issues are never ending.

    The WEB browser was never designed for this. Stop trying to hammer your square peg into the round hole!
  • Among other things, one of the aspects of Linux which draws me to the application is it doesn't phone home on me, is completely independent of the web (aside from grabbing updates), and no one has any right, real or contrived, to revoke my ability to run the software. I LIKE having it all installed locally, for performance, privacy, and permanence.
  • So this is where Free Software and commercial software finally part ways. Wouldn't have thought it.

    Why? Because software isn't a service. Selling access to software is what the commercial software industry is trying because it solves many problems for them, like piracy and how to keep users charging after the first bill. Neither of these and very few of the others are issues Free Software needs to burden itself with.

    Because, you know, in the end we need it all. Some stuff is best done as a web app. Some stu
  • by melted ( 227442 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @01:46PM (#19105471) Homepage
    When someone creates a mechanism to do deployments of just the pieces you need to run an app and installing them in an isolated sandbox - no one will care about the web apps anymore (and by apps I mean apps - word processors, spreadsheets, web editors). The key word here is "just the pieces you need to run". I.e. just the core of the app, 4-5 hundred K of code and relevant parts of libraries. I should be able to literally get up and running within seconds over today's broadband connections and continue working while this mechanism downloads the rest of the app code and data that may or may not get used in the future.

    Another key word is "isolated sandbox". I should be able to install apps without the fear that they'll wreck my system. I should be able to remove them at the drop of a hat, too, with no negative consequences. Apps must know how to save both locally and "in the cloud", too, and they must be intuitive with respect to where you save. Once you've fully downloaded the app, you must be able to run it locally.

    This just makes sense. You can't run a huge number of apps on the server, because server resources are not limitless. Client resources are pretty much limitless today, though. So no matter how you slice it, apps have to be run on the client and what's missing is a delivery mechanism that would make them as convenient as webapps.

    There, I've outlined the strategy for the next 5 years. Now the question is, who will implement it faster, FOSS or Microsoft.

    • When someone creates a mechanism to do deployments of just the pieces you need to run an app and installing them in an isolated sandbox


      So.. I could be wrong here, but you're basically talking about Zero Install [0install.net]. I really wish someone would base a distro on this technology.. (by someone, I mean someone with more free time than myself at the moment.)
  • by itsdapead ( 734413 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @02:02PM (#19105555)

    If someone wants to write a conventional wordprocessor they can choose to give it away for free without taking on any costs or liability. If someone wants to use that wordprocessor they can test it to their satisfaction and be fairly certain that it will then continue working. Worst case scanario - it doesn't keep up with some OS update in the future - and obviously they've checked that it uses an open file format, so that they won't lose their data.

    OTOH, a software-as-a-service wordprocessor is as much use as an inflatable dartboard unless someone is going to provide that service and make some minumum level of service guarantee (including data backups). That costs.

    Now, it would be great if there were Free/Open Source software-as-a-service SERVERS for people or companies who wanted to run their own "personal" centralised system - but as the main source of applications for a "Free" OS it just ain't gonna fly.

  • "Software as a service" is mostly about putting ads into applications. Or at least the current version of "service" is. The previous try at this, "application service providers" [wikipedia.org] (remember those) was pay per view, which didn't fly.

    The only reason the "browser as a platform" idea is popular is because the process of installing software has become so awful. The original MacOS had approximately the right idea; put an application in any folder, anywhere, and the Finder will find it. What we have now is "Le

  • by xenocide2 ( 231786 ) on Sunday May 13, 2007 @02:34PM (#19105769) Homepage
    So many comments posted thus far, and nothing about Affero [affero.org]. You can't discuss what free software in a "WebOS" (what a horrible term) means without bringing this up. The fundamental point is that the GPL allows anyone modification without no restrictions or obligations as long as you don't distribute the software to other people. Distribution is generally interpreted as different than running it. Basically, if you GPL a PHP driven website, anyone can take it, modify it, give other users access to "running" it without distributing any changes you've made.

    As best I can tell, the Affero license addresses this, by a clause partnered with specific functionality in the program. 'If this software came with functionality to give source code to users, you may not remove it.' or something to that effect. I've already seen one or two sites that have decided that it didn't apply to them, and the development community behind it sounded like "so what?" Which is fine I suppose, but it feels strange to me that they were able to make a site for a client based largely on existing OAGPL'd code, integrate the code with existing technology(that is also widely used and would be interesting to many people), fix bugs, and then turn around and declare yourself unable and unrequired to fulfill the obligations imposed on you by the agreement. This is compounded by the fact that generally its much harder to tell when a site is appropriating OAGPL'd code. With traditional software, strings will usually catch hidden strings, debugging statements etc. Web software only has the output to look at.

    I am somewhat comforted by the fact their site is already out of date, so either they or their client will be facing increasing costs in maintaining the site.
  • Thus, I invite you to tag this story with the really undervalued "dumbestfuckingidea" tag.

    Really, if you need something to further your agenda, FUCKING BUILD IT! Don't ask a rather large community to change their ways radically to a medium that is one giant security vulnerability.

  • This sounds like X terminals (ok, web terminals) connected to a powerful server. Not a new idea, and one that has been abandoned long ago. The performance hit is considerable and, most importantly, it does not make much sense unless you can save a LOT of money in the process. Considering the fact that the cheapest contemporary PC (say, the $700 laptop I'm using now) is able to run the toughest Office applications without breaking a sweat, I don't see why I should be tied to a provider for something that ca

  • While having the option might be nice, id rather have my applications under MY control and not have to rely on some 'nice person' out there in cyberspace to host them.

    ( sure, i can host myself, even today i do things remotely often, but i doubt many can/will do that so are we to rely on some kind benefactor ? )

  • I like Python. I'd like more Linux stuff to be written in Python (and Mono), and less in C/C++. I believe in web-based applications and all that, and I'd like more of the local applications to turn in to local web-based services that I can also access over the Internet.

    But first build the AJAXy replacements, then move people to them. And this can be done one application at a time. In fact, web based applications and server applications are moving into Linux-based distributions as fast as possible.

    I think
  • What if Sourceforge charged for login-only use of their servers (virtualized or in a sandbox) running software of a client's choosing?

    The benefits would be many, and drastic:

    A user can use any version, any time. Packages are built nightly, and if a minor version provides the best compatibility with any of my older documents, I can travel back in time to whenever. To avoid confusion, a dot or well-known-stable version would be the default.

    Script-based languages could have multiple interfaces. A logged-in
  • If you compare Windows Vista Ultimate ($399 on DVD) to a Mac mini ($599 on x64 PC) then it begs the question: why the fuck would you ship an operating system on a DVD? As a technical challenge? To generate a SKU? Certainly not to meet the needs of a typical PC user. By the time you get the DVD it is out of date, however the Mac mini updates itself over the Internet as soon as you plug it in.

    If you are making a Linux distribution you ought to be shipping on a PC, not a DVD. The "technically advanced user" ca

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