[Linux-aus] Who can make sense of Gartner's prognostications?

[Les Bell]

Kimberly Shelt <kim at linmagau.org> wrote:

>>
So far the results and certainly the comments by participants strongly
suggest the above.. I feel we may be preaching to the converted here
in this list, however :)
<<

Undoubtedly. . . The adoption pattern we're discussing is symptomatic of
bottom-up implementation, i.e. technical people going ahead and
implementing Linux and other FOSS systems in the face of top-down
strategies that favour Windows or other platforms. This is one of the
corollaries of Putt's Law:

Technology is dominated by two kinds of people:
      Those who understand what they do not manage,
      And those who manage what they do not understand.

This was meant to be humorous, I think (I first saw it in someone's .sig
line) but I believe it conveys a fundamental truth of ICT management.

We saw similar patterns in the days when OS/2 was The Great Hope: the
techos were raving about how good it was, and initially managers were
willing to listen, but in the end it was the completely non-technical
users' demands that won the day. Of course, the battle back then was for
the desktop, and users should have virtually no influence in the data
centre, but it's worth remembering that the inherent quality of the
software is not enough - usability, interoperability, documentation and
support/training issues also weigh heavily on managers trying to think
strategically.

Best,

--- Les Bell, RHCE, CISSP
[http://www.lesbell.com.au]