http://liliputing.com/2013/05/lilbits-5-30-2013-next-gen-memo-pad-7-ubuntu-bu...


I like noting "things that change" and I like to watch the future roll in on us.

The first item listed in newborn baby Ubuntu OS's very first bug log was bug #1, the fact that Microsoft dominated every platform in every country with MS software that really wasn't good enough to have done that on its own merits (it was a protest of Microsoft's gangster style business practices at that time actually).

Part political statement, part design intent statement -- Bug #1 quickly became a rallying cry for all of open source.   They work on Bug #1 at every developer conference at every distro in every country in the world up until now.

Bug #1 just got closed.

"Mark Shuttleworth closes Ubuntu bug #1: Microsoft’s majority market share

Ubuntu’s first bug report was filed in 2004, and the bug was that Microsoft dominated the PC space. This week Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth closed that bug for a few reasons. First, the growth of mobile devices means that Android and other mobile operating systems are now quite possibly on more devices than Windows in total. And second, it’s time to focus on Ubuntu, not the competition." [Ubuntu]


Please note that this closure has some internal ramifications for your thought processes.  

Microsoft is no longer the market share leader in computing devices.  

PCs are no longer even the largest class of computing devices.

Smart phones have more market share than computers by a goodly margin.  Even I own one now, and I talk text into it rather than slowly type it in.   I can do my reloading research on my cell phone sitting in my car at work,  and I am effective at it.    I do some of my list posting the same way.

Microsoft may make a come back sometimes in the future, they are down so low in people's estimation after Win 8's I/O uglies and Win for ARM's total flop they have no place to go but up.

So yes, Shuttleworth can close Bug #1 for good now.   If Windows makes a come back they will have to do it the old fashioned hard way -- they will have to earn it with good software that people really want enough to pay those big bucks for it.

Microsoft can no longer lock folks out by threatening the PC makers, heck they can't lock people out from installing on anybody's hardware but their own.



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So, what's next?

Apple is still being silent and is just selling last year's tech trickery at the same old prices.

Google is sitting on their comeback products, waiting for somebody to drop their shoe so they can kick it aside ....

Microsoft is continuing spending billions on advertising, trying to convince people that their phone and PC operating systems are really really neat instead of just a expensive mess of intrusive touch based features & stuff.

Firefox OS (Mozilla) is out now, on phones and on tablets.  It is a true open source OS, and it costs nothing and apparently a lot of far eastern suppliers are putting it on the very low end smart phones in a lot of third world countries as it fits that reduced feature $50 phone world very very well.   Firefox is doing what others have wanted to do, quietly and without any fuss or muss.   It works and with Firefox as a basis everyone already knows how to use it.

.... and using that low end 3 year old processor tech, etc Firefox is surprisingly FAST doing web searches and other simple tasks.

    if Android gets itself all bloated and slow, you got another alternative out there for a jailbreak OS.

The USA is not the center of computing any more, we don't even get the newest good stuff until the far east and Europe are supplied with it.

China is quickly becoming the center of computing, but the parent companies of many of the distribution channels are still USA based, so we will see if the Comdex show manages to pull any goodies out of the woodwork in the next week or so.