From: Gill, Kathy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>The memo (http://www.opensource.org/halloween.html) says: "The ability of
>the O.S.S. process to collect and harness the collective I.Q. of thousands
>of individuals across the Internet is simply amazing. More importantly,
>O.S.S. evangelization scales with the size of the Internet much faster than
>our own evangelization efforts appear to scale."
The Microsoft memo is interesting. It discusses Linux on its merits and its
weaknesses.
Linux is a low-level, short-term threat to Microsoft. The memo points out
that it's one thing to work for free on a popular movement and another to
actually finish a complete environment. A complete user environment can't be
pasted on, after the house is built. It has to be planned from the very
beginning. Linux is just an OS, without the intergated environment that one
finds in Windows or Macintosh.
Anyone who has spent time in political movements knows the three phases of a
movement: the initial hardcore of true believers, who, after a few years,
leave to get real jobs; the second wave, who take over and create a more
credible organization, but also leave after a few years for real jobs, and
the final wave, who pluck what they can from the carcass. This will happen
to Linux, just as it has happened to all other movements. Linus Thorvald has
already finished the first phase; he got a job. Linux is in the second
phase; Red Hat and other organizations are taking over Linux and
establishing it as a credible enterprise. This means managers, investments,
and marketing. This will also drive away the volunteerism.
Netscape's browser is now open source. Yet the Microsoft memo points out
that Netscape developer interest has fallen very fast. Is anyone going to
spend dozens of hours to improve the Netscape browser and thereby improve
Netscape founder Jim Clark's $500 million dollar stock portfolio? Any
Netscape fans here willing to work long hours for free for Netscape and make
megamillionaires yet richer?
The real casualty of Linux is (as I pointed out here several weeks ago)
other UNIX companies. Linux is a fatal threat to SUN. Microsoft itself
points out that Linux performs better than other UNIX and that it runs on
everything, incl. a 486 in the closet. SUN's UNIX, on the other hand, runs
only on SUN workstations. Linux is better than SUN's UNIX and it doesn't
need SUN workstations.
One could suspect that Microsoft wrote this for public release to attack
SUN. It's FUD strategy (FUD=fear, uncertainty, and doubt) against SUN's
UNIX. Dozens of Linux admins are going to wave the Microsoft memo at their
bosses and say "See! Even Microsoft says Linux is better than SUN." Managers
will be happy to replace SUN machines with cheaper Intel machines and free
Linux.
___________________________________________________
Andreas Ramos [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.andreas.com
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