Linus Torvalds Loves Nexus One, And So Can You

Linus Torvalds hates phones, maybe that's why you never got a call from him. But he recently fell in love with Google's Nexus One, which is powered by the very kernel he developed – Linux; a force which is now driving most of the critical business around the globe.

The reason why Linus hates phones? He explains on his blog: "I generally hate phones - they are irritating and disturb you as you work or read or whatever - and a cellphone to me is just an opportunity to be irritated wherever you are. Which is not a good thing."
 
But, something happened to this Finnish born developer. He had a change of heart. He bought a phone and said, "I have to admit, the Nexus One is a winner. I wasn't enthusiastic about buying a phone on the Internet sight unseen, but the day it was reported that it finally had the pinch-to-zoom thing enabled, I decided to take the plunge. I've wanted to have a GPS unit for my car anyway, and I thought that Google navigation might finally make a phone useful," says Linus, on his blog.
 
He further writes, "I no longer feel like I'm dragging a phone with me "just in case" I would need to get in touch with somebody - now I'm having a useful (and admittedly pretty good-looking) gadget instead. The fact that you can use it as a phone too is kind of secondary."
 
Its not just Linus who has fallen in love with Linux phones (pun intended), most of the users do too. Now, some ugly facts:

Deployment
Gnu-Linux is a powerful duo. Major enterprises around the globe are shifting to Gnu-Linux and other Muktware* technologies. Most governments now use Gnu-Linux and Muktware, which is the perfect use of taxpayers' money. These technologies also ensure that the nation has control over the technology that they are using and not some mega-corporate who controls or owns the code. 
 
Dynamic Innovation
The Gnu-Linux development has been much faster and dynamic than the Slaveware (proprietary) development. A stupid comparison: Look at how much Microsoft's Windows XP, Office suite and IE, or Apple's Macs have improved over the years and then compare it with how Gnu-Linux and Muktware have evolved.

Despite gaining the lion's share in the enterprise segment, Gnu-Linux did not gain that same popularity in the end or home user segment. People ask why is it not popular?

First: Linux for home users knocked on our doors just a few years ago where as Microsoft and Apple have been around since 1970s. Microsoft also played a major role in killing potential competitors – Netscape is one of the examples of such malpractices.

Second: Myth and FUD created by Slaveware companies that Gnu-Linux is not for the home user. The rest was due to lack of a mega-corporate which could market Gnu-Linux to home users. Canonical emerged with Ubuntu and they are gaining a user-base.
 
Mobile: The Hanuman Of Linux
It seems mobile phones are going to do what Desktop has been struggling to do with Gnu-Linux -- Making it a house-hold name.

Most phone users are not as tech savvy as some of the PC users. All they need to do is make calls, send messages and use a phone the way they use their TVs -- whether watching a YouTube video on it or developing a FaceBook network.

The market today is getting flooded by Gnu-Linux phones. All major mobile companies, including Motorola, Sony, Samsung, Nokia, and now Google, have launched their Linux powered mobile phones.

The much hyped Nexus One is a Gnu-Linux phone, Kindle is a Linux-powered eReader. If you have come across Kindle did you find any problems with it? Did you find it for geeks? No.

Devices like Kindle and mobile phones, due to mega corporates behind them, are breaking the myth, the FUD around Gnu-Linux that it is not for ordinary users.
 
Soon, you will find Gnu-Linux phones all around you.

That will be an end of a tightly controlled, monotonous, and dystopian era of Slaveware on mobile phones. The phenomenon will then catch the Desktop segment and people will start seeing beyond the mist of myth and learn that the real power rests in their hands and not the mega corporates.