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

[Arjen Lentz]

Hi Jon,

On Thu, 2004-09-16 at 16:54, Jon maddog Hall wrote:
> But they still don't get it.  For example:

I think they do. The rest is marketing spin.

> > As open-source software projects have grown from hobbies to widely used
> > products, companies such as Red Hat, MySQL and Zend have arrived to  support
> > them. Taylor predicted those companies will gradually grow more  remote from
> > the free-form open-source programming community as they  fulfill commercial
> > requirements such as testing to ensure that updates  don't break existing
> > software.
> 
> Most of the good free software projects were never hobbies.  They were tools,
> created by the people who needed them.  Red Hat was not started as a "hobby",
> and neither was MySQL.

And you reckon they don't know? I concur with Con's assessment. They
very likely know very well.
However, telling "MySQL has always been a commercial venture that uses 
open source in its development/business model" is not to their
advantage.
The above spin aims to dismiss the product as a former hobby project.

Assuming that "they don't get it" would be a mistake.


> Linus speaks of Linux as "fun", and it should be.  But he has also had in his
> mind "world domination", and you don't do that with just a "hobby" as Microsoft
> thinks of hobbies.

Agreed.


> >Being "first to cool" is an official corporate priority, along with 
> >being first to market and first to make a lot of money, according to a 
> >July speech by Chief Executive Steve Ballmer.
> 
> I read the speech.  It was mostly about making a lot of money.
> Nothing wrong with that, but it puts "coolness" as a secondary goal.

Indeed. Coolness is just as important, and even for business that should
not be a problem.
I don't find the term "first to cool" particularly catchy, though ;-)


> Once again, I am not saying that we should turn our backs on our major
> competitor, but I do not see them making gigantic strides with this newest
> announcement.  Too many people remember:
> Hiring a Hilf will not help them much as long as they have people like Balmer
> around:
> 'inflammatory comments that open-source software is  a "cancer" or "un-American."'
> 
> Or should that be "un-OZ"?

We all make mistakes, and the ones made externally get archived and
nowadays blogged. Applies to all of us, business and others.
You know that according to reports, MySQL does not have transactions.
You know the story. The stubborn persistence of such nonsense is our own
damn fault from past crap in our docs.

Similarly, you could take the discussions on FLOSS lists, and the
semi-religious rivalry between similar projects (say GNOME/KDE, etc) as
an indication of disorganisation, lack of direction, unclarity, and
generally bad karma. And certainly "opponents" are doing exactly this.
However, you and I and all of us here can probably agree that we can
hail it as "diversity" and that it is good for innovation. It just
happens that the discussions are visible.

The one lesson which I think is important to learn is that we, as a
community, must learn that these days we are actually being listened to,
or at least taken note of. Commonly people on soapboxes are kinda
ignored. Not so any more, in this case.
In FLOSS development, nearly everybody has a voice. That's good.
And freedom of speech is nice, but needs to be exercised with care.
Otherwise you may get noticed when you don't want to be, or not get
noticed when you do want to be.
Some people scream a lot, probably assuming noone is listening anyway.
Next thing they know it gets plastered allover the media. Oopsie ;-)


Regards,
Arjen.
-- 
Arjen Lentz
MySQL AB, www.mysql.com

See you at MySQL ComCon November 8-10! http://mysqlcomconeurope.com/