[Linux-aus] Re: [Osia-discuss] Fwd: Microsoft to take direct shots at Linux rivals

[Craig Small]

On Thu, Sep 16, 2004 at 04:26:11PM +1000, Arjen Lentz wrote:
> The new phase tactic is based on the fact that the vast majority of 
> Linux users buy their software from a company rather than downloading 
Is that actually a fact?  How would anyone know in any case? Certaintly
Debian, for example, has CD vendors that sell CDs, but you could also
download them and I know they don't really know how many downloads go
on, then you add in the second level mirrors and apt-caches...

> As open-source software projects have grown from hobbies to widely used 
> products, companies such as Red Hat, MySQL and Zend have arrived to 
Someone disputed the hobby tag, I would assume coming from Microsoft it
is supposed to be a bad comment.  However there is also some people
who's software project is much more than just a hobby, its their
"thing". I've talked to some programmers who wrote a library for a
particular branch of science or maths, sure its their job to study it
but their almost fanatical about it.

Look at the ntp programs and protocol. I have never met David L. Mills
but I'm quite sure ntp is his "thing". It's not a hobby but if you are
going to run a ntp program why not run the one written by the guy who
wrote the book on it.

> "What we're beginning to see is you can only be 16 for a year, then 
> after that you have to deal with some aging issues," he said.
It's called someone else taking over it and the original developer
taking a backward step.  Plenty of examples there of this happening and
if the package is useful enough there will be someone somewhere who will
take over the maintenance. The Linux kernel itself is probably the best
known.

 - Craig
-- 
Craig Small      GnuPG:1C1B D893 1418 2AF4 45EE  95CB C76C E5AC 12CA DFA5
Eye-Net Consulting http://www.enc.com.au/   MIEE         Debian developer
csmall at : enc.com.au                      ieee.org           debian.org