In The Technology Review (March 2002, p. 21), Michael Schrage writes "Wal-mart Trumps Moore's Law" [1]. He makes the point that Microsoft doesn't matter that much in the big scheme of things, because if Wal-Mart decides to spend their four billion dollar "Retail Link" investment elsewhere, whatever they choose wins overall.
Suppose Wal-Mart decided that it would be economically advantaged by abandoning proprietary software formats in favor of 'open source' to manage its supplier interactions. Imagine the ripple effect -- or rather, tsunami -- effect on the future of systems design and development in the retail, wholesale, and consumer goods sectors. Then later, he says Today's economic reality is that high-tech decisions made in Arkansas play a larger role in boosting America's productivity than decisions made in Silicon Valley or Seattle. His conclusion, therefore, about where we should look, and by extension, what open source should target, for future success, seems at odds with the usual assumptions of advocacy. [1] http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/schrage0302.asp
