> A good portion of last night's meeting dealt with software development > models in business, primarily with how to use FOSS effectively in > a commercial environment. > I want to make one comment on this. I feel the European model (write code, give it away, defeat evil empire), has not shown commercial viability. In fact companies like RedHat have made enterprises out repackaging the work done by these groups. KDevelop is a great example. A few people have been able to latch on to corporate entities and make a go of it, but they are the exception. (Miguel, Linus, Alan Cox, etc.)
I went to a developer conference in England (Raymond was one of the speakers) this past spring. The thing that struck me is: 1) they are hot, hot, hot about open source as a way to one up the US. 2) Almost everybody there, except those working in finance, were working on government projects. Open Source is great for government projects, but I think our strength comes from the innovation of the private sector. Financial reward is vital. My feeling is that Europe is embracing a socialistic model of software development. I don't think this is the right model for the US, and we should look at both the technical merits AND the business achievements that have come out of the European model. I have done this myself. Almost all Linux users I talk to about my proxy ask, "why don't you Open Source it." Because I want a fighting chance of making a buck on my work. It would be difficult for me to compete against the likes of Red Hat, who would gladly take my work and sell to IBM themselves. _______________________________________________ RLUG mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.rlug.org/mailman/listinfo/rlug
