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

[Con Zymaris <conz@cyber.com.au>]

On Thu, Sep 16, 2004 at 02:54:35AM -0400, Jon maddog Hall wrote:
> But they still don't get it.  For example:
> 

Don't worry Jon. They 'get it' all too well. 

> > 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.

Don't, for a moment, forget that these guys are the wizards of spin. Let
me show you why. They want to give two impressions here:

1) By implying a hobbyist heritage, they want to impart the notion to
   readers that FOSS projects are built on technical quicksand, not 
   engineered for the enterprise like their software stack. Would you 
   trust a skyscraper built on shifting sand?

2) That potential corporate users of FOSS should start looking for 
   the warning signs of internecine war, or worse, when the calamity of 
   commercial reality hits this space. Would you trust your enterprise to 
   a rag-tag assembly who are about to wreak holy war on commercial 
   interests when these two cultures collide?

Just wait for the spin turbines to _really_ get going. These guys have 
barely started...



-- 
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