>> > Unfortunately, most IT managers, CIOs, etc that I've spoken with don't
>> > seem to have even heard of it. They know the various commercial flavours
>> > of Unix - Solaris, AIX, etc - but not Linux.
>>
>> Out here, Linux is getting increasing amounts of press coverage in IT
>> magazines these days, and with the official linux support on their
>> product lines by Intel and Corel, who knows ...
>
>Just today an article appeared in one of the best IT magazines here,
>reporting a big morale boost for Linux by Sun's decision to join Linux
>International and support porting Linux to the Ultrasparc platform.
>
>Seems like we're showing up above the corporate radar horizon.
just out of curiosity, has anyone else been to the Open Source site? the
group is dedicated to making a case for free software which business types
can understand.
http://www.opensource.org/
their postulate is that the software industry is really a service trade
that's trying to do business under a manufacturing business model. the
inaccuracy of that world view is what's made most of the really ugly stuff
in the current software market possible.
they grant that there's a competetive advantage to keeping a technology
proprietary for a little while, as its being invented, because there's no
sense in feeding your competition on your own research. once competing
products exist, though, the advantages of proprietary control turn into
liabilities, and strong advantages develop in relation to opening the
source:
1: stability. if everybody in the world is pounding on your code,
they're gonna find bugs you never thought to test for. they'll
also fix them for you, and your product becomes more stable in
the areas most popular in the marketplace.
2: trust. one of the reasons people hate Microsoft is its history
of undocumented function calls that only insiders know about.
even if they completely rid themselves of that practice, it'll
take a very long time for third-party developers to believe it.
if your source is open, nobody can accuse you of fighting dirty.
3: legality. using Microsoft as an example again, they keep saying
that they're not a monopoly, just a normal company that's made it
to the top by being the strongest competitor in the market. and
the popular reaction has been roughly, "yeah.. and the guy with
loaded dice is just a better gambler." with open source, it's a
LOT harder for anyone to call you a monopoly, or claim you have
unfair advantages in the market.
it's a very interesting site, and i especially admire its effort to state
something us geeks like instinctively in terms a that will speak to the
soul of a businessman. if nothing else, it's a fantastic lesson in
communication for tech types.
mike stone <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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