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Need a hint?  It involves design in their upcoming versions.

As the desktop as we know it continues to evolve, and mobile devices continue to have a larger share in peoples’ lives, there is a trend developing in each of the systems’ beta releases.

These systems are taking hints, if not total interface concepts, from their mobile counterparts.

Take for example, Windows 8.  Not much has been seen of this future version, but if you look at what’s going on now with the new “Metro” style login, you can begin to see the direct correlation to Microsoft’s Windows Phone software.

Apple has been very outspoken about changing the design and function of their software in Mac OS 10.7 Lion.  Steve Jobs has indicated that the next version of Apple’s operating system will be directly inspired by iOS.  There will be gesture support (common iPhone and iPad swipes, taps, etc.), a “Launchpad Application Launcher” for all of your apps that will look just like your “home” page on your iPhone or iPad, and full support for the Mac App Store, which functions just like it’s mobile counterpart.

Even Ubuntu has taken much of its and design from its netbook/mobile edition for its next version.  In a rather controversial move, Canonical decided to move Ubuntu away from the classic GNOME desktop environment and replace it with the Unity shell.  GNOME is still there, just hidden underneath a different desktop shell that was taken directly from Ubuntu’s mobile version.  The Unity shell features a very different design that includes a launcher along the left side, somewhat like Apple’s dock in Mac OS X.  The system is fine-tuned for keyboard shortcuts, owing much of its usability to features learned while building a system for small screens.

So, what’s going on here?

Personally, I see this move as the next logical step in operating system design.  At this point, operating system providers are looking for ways to make their systems faster and leaner in order to gain an edge over the competition.  Once we reached Windows Vista, I’m sure many others including myself were tired of a bloated operating system.

At the same time, mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads, and Android devices have all become extremely familiar and mainstream.  Since mobile devices are small and do not have the same capabilities as laptops and desktops, they needed software that was both lightweight, efficient, and easy to use.

Those three features of mobile operating systems are the same as what operating system providers are looking for to place in their own laptop and desktop systems today.  Those features will be implemented in future versions of the major operating systems in order to gain better performance and a more efficient (in terms of usability) desktop experience.  Such a blend is an interesting turn of events in the evolution of the modern desktop.  Only one question remains — How far will such blending of mobile and traditional go?

After trying to compete against a product that gives off good-will as a byproduct, Microsoft has attacked the legality of open source software in hopes of scaring away potential users.  I’d compare it to children who are arguing on whose big-wheel tricycle is better.  Once one kid’s argument runs out the name calling and fighting ensues, just like the patent litigation in the situation between Microsoft and Motorola, where Microsoft can’t compete (at the moment) and is now trying to attack the legality of Android to scare potential and current producers from installing the system on their phones.

Technology politics aside, it’s easy to see why Microsoft targeted Android.  Google’s Android has become the first successful competitor to Apple’s iPhone.  Tethered to some of the best phones on the market, the free operating system provides a rich experience many dismissed as only capable with Apple products.  Microsoft, meanwhile, has been struggling to get it’s phone platform off the ground, going from the failed Kin platform to now Windows Phone 7.  Microsoft may be trying to buy time to get into the market through this litigation, but I hardly see how this would effect corporate or even consumers’ thoughts around using Android.  They think Android is awesome, and Microsoft just looks like a bully.

As much as I hate to think Microsoft is jealous (in a financial sense, of course), I think that scenario might be true.  Android, a free and open source Linux operating system provided by Google, has blitzed past all of Microsoft’s phone efforts and has become the primary competitor to Apple and is used by many phone companies as their top-of-the-line system.  Whew!  That’s a mouthful of successes — enough to make Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer throw a chair or two.  I’m sure Microsoft wanted their phone system to be in the place of Android.  I know they wish they could battle it out against Apple in the phone market and be considered as innovators again.  They wanted to be the ones to take some of the shine out of Apple’s products.  Yet, they fell short, against a competitor they hate deeply enough already (or at least the upper leadership may feel strongly about it) — Linux, from Google.  That’s a double threat.  Now, with competition clearly out the window, litigation has become the primary competitive action in line with legal settlements and “patent agreements” with many other large corporations who use or produce the Linux operating system.

Only time will tell how this patent litigation will turn out.  My prediction is that either the case will get turned over or a settlement will be reached without too much fuss.  Either way, I feel that this will not turn corporate or consumers away from using the free Android system.  It’s just too popular and beneficial for phone manufacturers not to implement the system.  After all, Android is their primary competitive weapon against Apple.  This battle is just something the open source software industry will have to deal with as Microsoft and others give up on competition and instead opt for litigation.

Believe it or not, you do not have to be a programmer or have any extensive technical knowledge to help out Linux distributions.  Every distribution has it’s own community project.  Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE are some of the most popular.  These communities are rather large, and include a jobs and work to be done that does not include “can program in three different languages” as part of the description.  You might have heard along the way that non-programmers are limited to simply documentation or artwork.  However, there is so much more that you can offer a distribution.

How do I know all this to be true?  I’m not a programmer – I also worked with the Ubuntu project for almost three years in several different capacities, none of which involved programming.  I’m a living example that you don’t need to be a programmer to get involved.  Want some more good news?  It was easy!

That’s great, but what can I do?

You might have heard that documentation or artwork were some of the only areas you could get involved.  Of course, part of that is correct, you can get involved with documentation and artwork, but there is more than that.  You also have marketing and the big one, advocacy, where you can really help out and make a difference.

1.  Documentation

Documentation is not only limited to the writing of technical articles surrounding your system.  That would require technical know-how.  Your job could be much more on the cosmetic side, making sure the writers of the articles are communicating their message smoothly and naturally, free of technical or awkward wording that might make it hard for new users to understand.

One of my first jobs in the Ubuntu project was working with documentation.  I worked within the text editor checking the help documents for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, and then I sent the revisions to the team leader to be reviewed and uploaded.  The process of getting involved was very friendly, and beyond the help I had in the wiki, there was extremely good help from team members who took me under their wing and helped me learn the entire process.  If you were a strong English student, this might very well be the job for you!  Also, don’t forget, if you are well educated in other languages, they always need your help and expertise in translating and writing documentation for other languages.

2.  Artwork

It would be an understatement to say that Linux needs good artists, and more of them.  When we have to compete against Apple and Microsoft, how are systems look is very important.  Linux distributions need clean, professional themes to compliment the software that is running on that computer.  In the Linux community, there are some really good artists, and there are some really bad ones.  We need more artists who are not of the immature anime or Microsoft bashing type.  Basically we need to escape the basement-dwelling stereotype.  Linux needs to be absolutely stunning, and you can help!

Another area that artwork is incredibly important is marketing.  Every operating system needs some good graphics to go along with the marketing material.  There are entire marketing teams set up within most, if not all, of the major distributions.  They are always looking for people to help create relevant material that will help promote Linux to the general population.

3.  Advocacy

You might have noticed by now that a lot of the work done in these different teams can be applied in different areas.  Advocacy is where it really all comes together.  Advocacy is such a big subject I considered writing another article on it alone, but for now I’ll just write about it in a nutshell here.  Advocacy covers several different areas, from marketing, artwork, documentation, and support.  Your job is to promote your operating system of choice in your locale.

You might find yourself running events, working with local organizations on various volunteer projects for the community, or speaking at conferences.  You might be giving out support to a new user on a forum, mailing list, or chat channel.   You might be creating personalized marketing material for your area.  You will probably also get yourself a blog and start writing articles telling the world about how much you love your distribution.  In this job, you will become a jack of all trades.  With such a broad spectrum of what can be done with advocacy, it may be difficult to figure out where to start.  Most major distributions have some sort of advocacy position.  For example, Fedora and openSUSE both have “Ambassadors,” while Ubuntu has what are called “Local Community Teams” (LoCo Teams).  Ambassadors and LoCo teams are quite similar, the only difference being that with a LoCo team it is not just one person going to conferences and providing marketing, but rather a team of people who can each work in their area of specialty.  openSUSE also has something called “Local User Groups” (LUGs) which are similar to LoCo teams.  Both Ambassadors and LoCo’s are highly effective in promoting Linux to the masses because they get out into their community and work with people face to face in promoting Linux.  If you want to get exposed to many different areas of working with a Linux project and get to know other Linux users in your area, then this is definitely the job for you.

But how do I…?

So now you may be wondering “That’s fantastic Jon, but how do I get involved?”  Like I mentioned earlier, it’s really not that difficult.  I have provided links to all the teams I mentioned above below for the Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE projects.  I have found all three to be a pleasure to work for, and I’m sure you will too.  All you need to do is follow the instructions on how to join on the main page.  In most cases, this involves joining the mailing list and introducing yourself.  Make sure you mention that you are new and would like to learn the procedure of how things work. There will be people in those teams who are willing to teach you and will help you grow into your position.  Also, don’t be afraid to tell the other team members to slow down if they are trying to teach you too quickly or are sending you too much work.  They are generally flexible and can help you work at your own pace.  Every bit of contribution helps!

Documentation:

Ubuntu Documentation Team – https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam

Fedora Docs Project – http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject

openSUSE Documentation Team – http://en.opensuse.org/Documentation_Team

*Note – These are specifically documentation teams who write help articles, system info, etc.  There are other documentation teams for translation and wiki editing.  Try the standard documentation teams first to get some practice working with each distributions tools.

Artwork:

Ubuntu Artwork Team – https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork

Fedora Artwork Project – http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork

openSUSE Art Team – http://en.opensuse.org/Art_Team

Marketing:

Ubuntu Marketing Team - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam

Fedora Marketing Project – http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing

openSUSE Marketing Team – http://en.opensuse.org/Marketing/Team

Advocacy:

Ubuntu LoCo Teams - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeams

Fedora Ambassadors – http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors

openSUSE Ambassadors – http://en.opensuse.org/Ambassadors

openSUSE LUGs – http://en.opensuse.org/Local_User_Groups

There is a difference, however, between perceived reality and the truth, and a clear difference between a great opportunity and taking that great opportunity.  I’ll get to the latter part of that statement in a moment.  Take this article as an example of the reality issue, which describes a perfect storm scenario for the masses to move to Linux from other systems.  Not to focus solely on the arguments of the article, there are a few things which are immediately clear.  Right off from the beginning blurb, there is the “more than ever” type statement making a generalization about users’ decisions.  Obviously, the article is more opinion and observation than anything else.  Nothing in the open source community is easily measured, so instead of factual data generalizations must be used.  There’s no way to get around that, and for all intents and purposes is not a bad practice; it’s simply all that we have right now.  This article, as with so many others like it, assume several things:

1. The “perfect storm” situation is bad enough that people will want switch to something in mass that they don’t even know about.
2. Linux is actually ready for everyone and their grandma.

So, as you can see there are a couple logistical problems we run into with the sensationalist articles.  This is what is so frustrating about these articles.  We say we are growing, but are we really?  If we are growing, is it out-running the other competitors and the track of population growth?  Like I said, nothing in the open source community is really accurately measurable.  We have to look at various indicators to just give us an idea of where things stand, not so much in raw numbers, but rather directions of growth or stagnation in a project’s activity and involvement.   I could go on with this subject for a while, but that’s a rant for another day.

As mentioned earlier, there is a difference between seeing a great opportunity and taking advantage of that opportunity.  Sometimes I think people forget that in order for Linux to move forward, there has to be action from the supporters to move Linux in a positive direction.  These opportunities have a tendency to change as well, which means we must take advantage of them while they exist in our favor.  For example, it’s easy just to say we can use the depressed economy to lure new users, but what happens after the economy improves (clearly I’m an optimist)?  There is also no large marketing campaign or shelf-space in stores dedicated to Linux.  We are fighting the uphill battle, and we can’t just say that we’ve won.  We have to take advantage of the opportunities we have to make things happen.

No matter the intent, sensationalist articles are not overall helpful or realistic when it comes to advancing Linux.  The only thing that will continue to help move Linux forward is action on the behalf of the community that supports  it.  This includes developing the software to make it better than the competition and providing marketing support, which can include written articles.  Those articles need to be informative, however, and better educate users on what Linux is all about.  We need to be smart about this though, since there is a difference between the audience on CNET and LinuxInsider  — know to which audience you are writing.  Why continue to preach to the choir about how Linux is ready to dominate when we can go help it achieve the goals we write about so often?

I expected the typical Linux-friendly music store of little known indie bands and remixes.  What I found however, was just about every band that I could search for, including Boston, Guster, and the Black Eyed Peas.  Incredible!

Apparently, a company known as 7Digital is providing the music. They’ve broken up song availability into regions (i.e. USA, Germany, EU, etc.).  People who are considered by Ubuntu One’s music store to live in the “rest of the world” will not be able to purchase songs from major music labels.

The songs come in the popular MP3 format without DRM.

There seems to be a similar pattern in the mobile operating system market just in the social networking market.  In both markets you have your front-runners.  Think Apple, RIM, and on the social networking side, Facebook.  Then, you have a myriad of random second-rate providers showing up, flooding the market beyond critical mass while all trying to ride off the market leader’s success.  Just like in the social networking market, I can only see some of the smaller providers with seemingly no value being killed off by software’s version of natural selection.

Sometimes I think companies and individuals who are trying to create the next big thing, whether it’s a mobile operating system, social networking service, or even another web 2.0 service, perhaps they should stop and think about other opportunities that do not involve an over-saturated market.

While the project may be small in comparison to larger distributions, it is becoming a more popular option for Linux enthusiasts and new users alike, especially with the recent release of openSUSE 11.2.

While there are many reasons open source developers are not focusing on the iPhone and Apple is not helping much, I think the bigger picture provides a good perspective on what is going on here.  Apple is a control-oriented company.  That is very at odds with open source, which lacks controls and fosters free creation of applications.  A lack of control does not fit well with Apple’s model.  Apple likes to be able to say which applications go on their phone.  To some degree, that is a good thing, but how many killer apps have been denied access to the app store because they compete with Apple’s existing software? For the user, is that a good thing?  Do you have access to the best available software? 

In part, I would have to say that Apple’s control model has worked well for them.  Their products are well made and show that someone had been putting it all together with great concern over the user experience.  Some direction and structure is a good thing, but when it comes to suffocating the creative edge of individual developers or driving away competitors’ applications, one thing is clear – the end user gets the bad end of the deal.