Who is Open Source?
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| tuxchick Feb 20, 2010 2:03 PM EDT |
The one thing Microsoft is really good at is pandering to all the little remoras that depend on Microsoft for their livelihoods. The value of the entire MS ecosystem is huge, I forget the figure now, I think I read half a trillion dollars per year. This includes the "security" industry, the cleaning-up-after-the-security-industry-failures industry, the PC and server vendors, software developers, ISVs, public relations, "tech" "news", tech book publishing, and so on. They all know, deep down in their scared little hearts, that the infrastructure propping all of this up is rickety junk, and that Microsoft's real business is propping up this gigantic crapware empire. The one and only way to be a leader in open source is to actually do open source. But Microsoft and all their dependents don't want to. They don't understand it, and don't want to understand it because their focus is entirely on propping up the status quo. Even though the props keep getting bigger, more expensive, and harder to maintain. All they know is the carrot and stick. The carrot is mass quantities of money, and the stick is being crushed by the Borg. Money opens all kinds of doors, and buys them all kinds of "friends." But it will never make them any kind of open source leader. I'm puzzled why they even want to be thought of as an open source leader. |
| phsolide Feb 20, 2010 2:09 PM EDT |
As our friends the Bulgarians say, what cannot be bought with money, can be bought with more money. Kidding aside, you speak the truth. Microsoft: "Propping up a gigantic crapware empire" since 1982. I just love it when the corporate types defend the MSFT "choice" by saying that's it's more flexible or more reliable, or cheaper to use than anything else. That always provokes the worst feeling of cognitive dissonance in me, as I have a Slackware server that literally *never* goes down unless my residential power fails. And it costs me *nothing* except my time, which is minimal, and I'm not ever a professionaly system administrator. I expect that trying to be an "open source leader" will provide many others the same sort of feelings of cognitive dissonance. At least I hope so. |
| Ridcully Feb 20, 2010 5:11 PM EDT |
Microsoft always has been and, for the foreseeable future always will be a monopolistic company interested in only one thing: extracting the maximum of profits for its closed source, proprietary software products. An "outstretched hand of friendship" from Microsoft has me taking only one action: looking with extreme suspicion for the knife hidden in the other hand because the company's past actions tell me only too well that Microsoft looks on Linux and FOSS as the biggest threats of all to its dominance of world computing. The first question to be asked aways is: What does Microsoft stand to gain ? And given the stated/shared attitudes of Gates and Ballmer that Linux, FOSS and the GPL can be equated with "cancer", it couldn't be collaboration and cooperation could it ? The Windows operating system remains totally flawed in that it is a security nightmare. It was designed from the foundations upward as a single user, stand alone system ~ and nothing can change that except a total re-write of the code on different principles. Each release of Windows says the same thing: better, faster, more secure........and each time the malware hits, sometimes before the final release candidate is out the doors. Nope.......any moves like this only tell me that Microsoft is now getting more and more concerned at the steadily increasing uptake of Linux everywhere. Even the desktop is being threatened and that is Microsoft's last "stronghold". When Microsoft openly embraces the GPL is when I will finally believe that the leopard can change his spots. But I am not holding my breath: something about a very warm place freezing over comes to mind. |
| Bob_Robertson Feb 20, 2010 5:11 PM EDT |
I'm Spartacus! ....woops, sorry, wrong thread. |
| Scott_Ruecker Feb 20, 2010 6:37 PM EDT |
No..I'm Spartacus! |
| TxtEdMacs Feb 20, 2010 7:37 PM EDT |
Quoting:I'm Spartacus! Quoting:No..I'm Spartacus!You know what that means? We have two volunteers to be billboards on the Highway of Death. |
| Bob_Robertson Feb 20, 2010 8:10 PM EDT |
> We have two volunteers Yep, nailed me with that one. (does it stray into the religion category of off-topic to make crucifiction references? Or am I being a stick in the mud?) |
| azerthoth Feb 20, 2010 8:29 PM EDT |
dunno about off topic or religion, but for that pun alone I'm all for bringing crucifiction back. will some one please pass the febreeze? |
| Bob_Robertson Feb 20, 2010 9:34 PM EDT |
BTW, while completely off-topic, I whole heartedly recommend to anyone interested in film to get the Criterion DVD of Kirk Douglas' _Spartacus_, I got it through Netflix, and listen to the audio "commentary track". A movie that somehow survived with 6 prima-donna super actors. Can you imagine Eric Raymond, Richard Stallman and Theo de Raadt working on the same software together? Naaa, I'm just reaching for SOMETHING related to F/OSS. |
| jdixon Feb 20, 2010 10:55 PM EDT |
> A movie that somehow survived with 6 prima-donna super actors. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054331/ Director: Stanley Kubrick I think that says it all. Hmm. IMDB is apparently "An Amazon.com company.", so it probably runs on FOSS. |
| gus3 Feb 20, 2010 11:34 PM EDT |
Quoting:IMDB is apparently "An Amazon.com company.", so it probably runs on FOSS.Except for that 1-click thingy. Nobody else is allowed to use that. Or even implement it. |
| Bob_Robertson Feb 21, 2010 3:29 PM EDT |
> Nobody else is allowed to use that. Or even implement it. Not even sure we can TALK about it. Woops, too close to the copyright/patent thing. Oooo, that there is a slippery slope. Gotta get me some crampons...then do Riverdance! |
| phsolide Feb 21, 2010 6:57 PM EDT |
I'm told that the big mass slave-rally scene at the end has at least one "Roman Slave" running around wearing a wristwatch. I've never seen it all the way through, so I can't testify to that. But to bring it back full-circle: Stanley Kubrick used Open Source. There, I said it. |
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