Today's closed source software vendors have a very neat, tidy arrangement that works well for them on both the Windows and OS X platforms. Create a software application that solves a need, release updates and patches as needed, then collect the revenue generated from the sale of the software.

Then there is the PC hardware industry. Much like their counterparts in the closed source software realm, today's PC hardware industry is less focused on one platform only – it tends to focus on both OS X and Windows. Because both platforms have provided a well-developed means of ensuring compatibility through a consistent set of development standards, developing hardware drivers for both platforms is a painless experience for the most part.

So where does Linux play into all of this? There is little consistency from Linux distribution to distribution. In this piece, I will be exploring why I believe that the software and hardware industries fear widespread Linux adoption and what they will eventually have to do about it should things with desktop Linux come into fruition.

Desktop Linux presents a problem for many hardware vendors. To provide their own driver support to the half dozen popular Linux distributions, it means providing consistent support from distribution to distribution.

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