Linux or Bust: Why Businesses Can’t Ignore This Growing Trend

By Seth Robinson

It used to be a clear sign of geekiness. People who were into Linux would rave about its benefits and flexibility…as long as you knew how to install your own OS, dig around for the hardware drivers you needed, and be a master of command-line instructions. For a world building technical literacy through more user-friendly front-end systems, Linux was a niche reserved for technology enthusiasts.

The world has changed, though, and Linux is growing out of its pigeonhole to become a powerful force in today’s digital climate. Maturity in technical savviness and improvements in Linux distros have closed the historical gap, but beyond that there are some specific drivers making Linux a bigger deal than it was before. Here are five reasons that Linux is on the rise and Linux skills are in high demand:

Linux is showing up more on the front end too, primarily thanks to Android. Mobile devices are not replacing PCs in most cases, but they have definitely become additional tools for many employees. For some workers, mobile devices add computing capability where none existed before. Linux-based Android accounts for approximately 80% of the smartphone market, and while much of this is due to low-end options, the high-end devices are on par with iOS in enterprise usage, driving support demands.

All the major public cloud providers offer Linux images as a way of expediting virtual instance creation. AWS, Microsoft, and Google all prominently display help pages for setting up Linux machines. If a company is going the private cloud route, it will need cloud orchestration software such as OpenStack or CloudStack, and this software often sits on top of a Linux installation.

On top of that, developers are helping drive Linux in the one area it has always struggled the most—the desktop. A survey of over 50,000 developers conducted by Stack Overflow showed that 21.7% preferred to use Linux, usually as part of developing on the LAMP stack. That still places Linux third behind Windows (52.2%) and Mac OS X (26.2%), but this is still much more balanced than adoption among the general population, and Stack Overflow reports that the Windows preference has been steadily dropping.

With development skills improving across the board, the barriers for creating IoT software are lower. Linux will likely play a large role here, as open source components can be modified for the function or power demands of new devices. It also helps give a common base that can help drive interoperability. One example of this new software is Zephyr, developed by Linux Foundation to be scalable and run on devices with as little as 8kb of memory.

Linux is sometimes viewed as being “more secure,” but this reputation is largely based on the same thing that gave Macs their secure reputation—lower adoption. Clearly, that situation is changing. Furthermore, open source software can be a boost for development efforts, but also can create vulnerabilities as code comes from a variety of sources and gets combined in untested ways.

There are many pieces coming together as organizations develop new technology strategies. Linux is not a new innovation, but it is being used more widely. Businesses need to take inventory of their capabilities and invest as needed to close any skill gaps. If Linux is still geeky, then congratulations to the geeks: it’s your time to shine.