Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Email to Brian Behlendorf

Author:Oliver Breidenbach
Posted:4/24/2000; 7:33:37 AM
Topic:Email to Brian Behlendorf
Msg #:16607 (In response to 16572)
Prev/Next:16606 / 16608

You should be old enought to recognize the cycle. From serial to parallel to serial to parallel... From RISC (althought it was not called that) to CISC to RISC to CISC... From Client/Server to Distributed to Mainframe to Client/Server to Distributed... From single vendor to cross platform to single vendor to cross platform... From High Cost/High Quality to Low Cost/High Quality to Low Cost/Low Quality to High Cost/High Quality.... And so on. Non if it really lasted. Open Source Software is just part of the evolutionary cycle of technology. It will capture some market share in certain markets. It won´t take over the world. This is something the Open Source world is quite immature about. Sort of reminds me of my Atari ST days, when we where young and believed that the world would be a better place without those Amiga computers. In the end we got online and played dungeons with them. They had better graphics, we had better lives. Their platform died, our platform died.

And there is not just commercial vs. Open Source. There are many licensing models for software and many ways to make a living. In the end, your customers decide. They may listen to Zealots, but they are too smart to simply believe the hype. Where is Java now? How many people really run Linux as their desktop OS? Money looks for the high risk games. Customers look for value for their money. A value/money equation doesn´t work too well with money=0.

The future lies in diversity. And the challenge is, of course, to integrate and ride the cycles. If the Open Source People want to behave like children in a sandbox, so be it. The best way to deal with it is watch them build their sand castles and adjust your action figures to match their size. The next rain will take care of the sand castles if they are not smart enough to cooperate with the people that make the umbrellas.

Cheers,

Oliver.

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