From: "Horace Mitchell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: [CI] Re: Principles of strategic information
technology
Wrote in part
> I always wonder to what extent the largely uncritical promotion of
Linux is to do with its excellence, to what extent to an emotional
anti-Microsoft or anti-capitalism or anti-wealth or some other anti
perspective. <cut>
Reply From: "David R. Newman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [CI] Re: Principles of strategic information technology
Date sent: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 19:37:26 +0100
Well, for most people, and most organisations, it is a pragmatic
decision. Blackstar (www.blackstar.co.uk) can handle far more online
orders for videos, and give better customer service, through its
custom-written software running on Linux and Solaris. It has notably
contributed to their success: quite rare in pure-play e-businesses.
There are enough other practical reasons for the community and
voluntary sector to use free software that 80 people came to the
first NIOSC (http://www.niosc.org/) at NICVA (http://www.nicva.org/).
But in addition to that, there are strong parallels between the way
people work together in community groups, and the ways people work
together in developing and using free and open source software.
When you are using something like Tikiwiki
(http://tikiwiki.sourceforge.net/, used in
http://itsoc.mgt.qub.ac.uk/ and http://www.greens-in.org/) and are
dissatisfied with the software, you don't have to wait for the next
commercial release. You can (as I did) write small modifications to
the code. You can also post messages to the developers mailing list
that get replies directly from the developers within a few hours.
Sometimes there is a workaround you can use, at other times someone
picks this up as something to include in the next release (about once
every 6 weeks in the case of Tikiwiki). The users/developers become
part of the same community, helping each other solve their problems.
This way of collaborative working is not new. It is the way
scientists work: publishing freely, not keeping secrets. You can
trace this back to the work of missionary monks and friars. I suppose
that is an anti-capitalist position, as they have renounced all
worldly goods to serve the poor!
In as much as community informatics is about using computers to
empower community activities, then any community group should look
not just at using the products of software developed by virtual
communities of volunteers, but also at appropriating some of their
tools and ways of working to deal with things other than software
development (e.g. collaborative research). This is something Eric
Raymond touched on in his articles following up on "The Cathedral and
the Bazaar". <cut>
Additional Comment From: "Don Cameron" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: [CI] Switchover from Microsoft to Linux
Date sent: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 11:14:05 +1000
Hi all,
Horace is correct in suggesting that Linux promotions are mostly
based on emotive argument and generally fail to encompass all the
realities of community computing; especially where business is
concerned.
David's references offer wonderful insight into what might be through
the example of Blackstar, but how true are the comparative realities
of even this single and somewhat rare example? The reference to
Blackstar relying on Linux and Solaris speaks volumes albeit bundled
in a passing comment. What ratio's are involved? I have no knowledge
of Blackstar's architecture however assuming they are like the other
99.9% of Ecommerce ventures, then all of the 'meaty' transactional
and database work would be handled by Solaris (commercial,
proprietary). Some of the middleware such as web-servers and possibly
firewalls would be Linux (free, open source, unless they use
'Enterprise Linux' installs such as Red Hat etc. in which case these
are also commercial systems). All user interface systems (accounting
programs and spreadsheets, word-processors, printing and scanning
services; all the other applications required for a business reliant
on humans with lesser skills than a computer programmer, yet still
required to interface with computers) would undoubtedly be sitting on
Windows desktops with probably more than one Win2K server in the
background (commercial proprietary)... of even higher significance...
a quick perusal of Blackstar's web presents a site clearly optimised
for Microsoft Internet Explorer! (Blackstar might be promoting the
use of Linux but they seem to know quite well what it is their
customers need).
Again acknowledging my ignorance of Blackstar's architecture; perhaps
the above is blatantly incorrect... however if so this would indeed
be a rare installation and hardly typical of the vast majority of
similar enterprises.
David's further comments are in general supportive of Open Source
albeit not directed at Linux (Tikiwiki etc.). This is an example of
an OS application with many counterparts existing for most Operating
platforms (Windows, Mac, BSD, Unix, Linux etc. etc.). A comparable
example to Tikiwiki would be Snitz Forums; another Open Source
initiative with a strong developer community creating free community
forums for the Windows platform. This type of development exists
across the spectrum of applications development with roots in
'freeware' and the ethos of collaborative development - yet in
fairness these developments do not argue in favour, or against the
observation made by Horace.
I think what we tend to forget in the passion of operating systems
evangelism is that communities of interest also work with commercial
entities; not all communities are against the concept of development
through economic growth or choose to operate as models of stand-alone
independence. Red Hat 'Enterprise' is a commercial development taking
input from a strong development community... Microsoft Windows is
similarly a commercial development taking input from a (significantly
larger) development community. This is something often forgotten in
our evangelistic platform wars. Would it surprise anyone to learn
that more people freely contribute to Windows operating system and
applications development than to Linux? - Easily verified by simply
perusing the global development forums and checking out the number of
participants. The Windows development community is significantly
larger - so where to from here for arguments supporting Linux on the
grounds of community interaction?
PS - I do use Linux in the workplace as well as at home, plus I take
pride in having helped to co-ordinate Australia's first fully Open
Source Community Telecentre. I am certainly not anti-Linux; in fact I
am not really anti-anything to do with computers... just trying to
find the facts behind emotive debate.
Cheers, Don
</quote>
Compiled by myself.
John
