Apple did get a couple of big boosts from open source however. 1) They had a big ( and rough ) transition to a BSD kernel which they accomplished by embracing open source when it was convenient. This was a huge benefit to them (look at Microsoft which is still not able to execute on having a core OS that is dependable). 2) The iOS hackers initially forced Apple's hand to release apps. I think you wouldn't have seen the app store model exist for another year or so without the hacker community pushing them. But Apple's story is more complicated than just source code - they also do hardware. Their iOS devices exploited the self-induced criticality that the sclerotic executive teams at Motorola and Nokia created by producing incredibly crappy phones... I do think they deserve their just rewards for breaking that bottleneck... but true they don't have a lot of incentives right now to foster open source.
I think my own similar fears here recently are in seeing things like Microsoft going on a patent buying spree. Does this mean my next startup will be swatted as soon as it sticks its head out of the mud? Also, I think maybe the issue is open data now too as well. It was always the rallying cry for this community. We see it coming to the foreground again with OSM / Google Maps... 2012/4/9 Eric Wolf <[email protected]>: > I'm loving Iván's posts this morning. I need to buy him a beer next chance I > get... > > Esri has always been supportive of Open Source and Open Data, especially > when compared to Microsoft (which is generally hostile to Open Source). Of > course, supportive doesn't mean they buy into Open Source completely. I > doubt you'll ever see the source code to ArcGIS Desktop in GitHub. However, > there are many bits of source code in GitHub that ArcGIS depends on: > GDAL/OGR, proj.4, Python immediately come to mind. It used to be that if you > scanned through the files in an ArcGIS installation, you'd see at least > three different version of GDAL.DLL. What that meant was that at least three > different divisions within Esri depended on GDAL or OGR so much that they > couldn't even unify on a single version of the library. > > Esri depends on Open Source almost to the same degree as Google! One > noticeable difference between Esri and Google is that Esri's corporate > culture prevents them from attracting and hiring leading Open Source > developers. Where do Frank Warmerdam and Guido van Rossum work? > > Interestingly, where Esri puts forward their best effort is education. If > you are at an American University, you probably have access to an Esri site > license. That site license typically costs the university about what a > commercial enterprise pays for two desktop licenses for ArcGIS. It's less > than one years' tuition for one student at many schools. For all intents and > purposes, Esri software is free for academics. Esri also spends a lot of > money on producing decent educational materials. Esri press resurrected the > English version of Bertin's _Semiology of Graphics_. If you need to teach a > GIS class at any level, Esri's going to make sure you get lots of help. And > just as Google does a good job of attracting some of the best Open Source > developers, Esri attracts some of the best GIS Educators: Aileen Buckley, > David DiBiase, Dawn Wright, Mike Gould, Joe Kierski, etc. > > In the 90s we saw an all-out-war between Microsoft and Open Source. In the > 2000s, we saw companies that adopted the collaborative possibilities of open > source (and the Internet) surpass the Microsoft juggernaut. Does this mean > this decade will see pure Open Source companies rise? At this point, it > almost seems to be going the other way. Apple came from the dredges in the > 90s to become the most valuable company in the world - coming close the the > combined market valuation of Microsoft, Google and Esri combined. How open > is Apple? > > -Eric > > -=--=---=----=----=---=--=-=--=---=----=---=--=-=- > Eric B. Wolf 720-334-7734 > > > > > > On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 9:08 AM, Iván Sánchez Ortega <[email protected]> > wrote: >> >> On Lunes, 9 de abril de 2012 15:04:57 Stefan Keller escribió: >> > I did not understand: Are they changing their business model? Do they >> > abandon obvious vendor lock-in issues? >> >> IMHO, ESRI is trying to cover every possible ground. They want to appeal >> to >> both open- and closed-source devs so, no matter who wins in the end, >> they're >> still in business. >> >> I saw this very clearly with OSM data support on their part. They want to >> have >> the best software for managing OSM data, *and* the best sw to manage >> navteq >> data, *and* the best sw for managing their own data, *and* the best sw to >> manage official NMA data. So no matter which dataset "wins", you will want >> to >> use their products. >> >> By covering every possible ground, they make sure they cover the winning >> ground. At least that's what I think their strategy is. >> >> >> >> Best, >> -- >> ---------------------------------- >> Iván Sánchez Ortega <[email protected]> <[email protected]> >> >> Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Geowanking mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > Geowanking mailing list > [email protected] > http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org > -- @anselm 415 215 4856 http://twitter.com/anselm _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org
