[Sussex] Linux User and Developer

[Geoff Teale]

Evening all..

Slow day on the LUG.. this may be because I was spending my day of 
unemployment driving around and shopping instead of flooding the list with 
nonsense, and the like of Nik Butler were drinking coffee in Hammicks... 
which is where I bumped into, and he advised me to take a second look at my 
copy of Linux User and Developerfor this month.

... and there on Page 34 is a half page add for 3ait :-)

Now normally I wouldn't give Nik such a shameless plug, but it is nice to see 
and anyhow it prompted me to think about the visible changes going on as 
Linux becomes more and more mainstream.  I'm very pleased that I'm about to 
become a 100% Linux based worker and that there will shortly be at least 2 
companies in Horsham basing their business entirely on open source software 
(though 3ait and Cmed Technology / Third Phase are in very different areas of 
business).

The combined results of three US studies show that between 48 and 55% of all 
people employed to develop software in the USA spent the majority of the work 
time developing for Linux or *BSD in the year April 2002 - April 2003, 
figures for this year are expected to be at least 10% higher.  Much of this 
can be accredited to the shift to Linux by the major banks following "9-11" 
but the knock on effects are huge.  Linux has joined java as the unofficial 
"standard" platform for banking systems and that will have a impact on all 
the businesses dealing with IT in and around that sector.  Unfortunately in 
the UK the figures are much lower (and infact we are amongst the slowest in 
Europe in terms of Linux adoption).  Hopefully Britain will do as ever and 
follow on behind the US a few years later...

With development and application comes the need for support and a whole other 
range of other services.  Given this climate I wonder how long it will be 
before the majority of the IT professionals on this list will be able to have 
the choice to work in an open source environment?

I don't envisage a time when there will ever be such a homogenous market as 
the one Microsoft enjoyed in the late 1990's (nor would I want there to be) - 
but I would like to think there will be a time when people will be afforded 
some choice when looking for a job.  I spent most of the last three years 
looking for a LINUX development position, having finally found and accepted 
one I have since had more Linux development job specs through than in all 
that time.  Momentum is an interesting thing....

Anyhow, here's a good-luck to Nik and the 3ait guys, hope the advertising 
works and maybe i'll see you in Hammicks from time to time ;-)

-- 
GJT
Free Software Foundation
tealeg at member.fsf.org