|
|
|
|
Blessed are the Geeks, for they shall internet the earth |
Another country down the tubes
John D.
I’m not plugging Microsoft, but imagine the impact on the US economy if in
the early 80's the government made a mandate and chose an operating system.
The two main choices at the time would have been CP/M, or VMS. Most people
have never heard of these operating systems today, and thats my point. If we
were required by law to adopt one of those two operating systems, the
dot-com revolution would never have happened, and we'd still be using one of
those two operating systems. Either operating system would work fairly well
and very reliably for a limited number of applications. Chances are we never
know what we were missing.
Making your country "Linux Only" isn't a technical statement it’s a
political one. It's a socialist statement, along the lines of "Power to the
People". While these sentiments may prove popular with a particular crowd,
codifying a choice of operating systems in law is a bad idea. Technology
changes faster than laws ever can. If laws specified a particular technology
we would likely be required to use 8 track tapes players.
Microsoft may become irrelevant in years to come if they stagnate and start
to rely on using their corporate muscle instead of innovating. Some will say
they already are, others will contend that they are not. The market will
decide. IBM was once an innovative dynamic fast reacting company. Say that
today and most people will be waiting for a punch line. Microsoft may soon
share IBM's fate, the ironic "victims of their own success" should they
become to big to manage.
The article also referenced questions of "Open Source" vs. "Big Business"
"Big business" is a loaded word, often used to provoke emotional responses
instead of logical ones. A lot of times the phrase "big business" is used as
a bogeyman for people that want more regulations. Ironicly regulations often
help big business by creating barriers to entry that prevent newcomers with
new ideas from entering the market place. Open Source or free software has a
place, and can be quite useful. However one must remember free anything,
does not exist except for charity and donations. Free software developed by
philanthropists will never match the quality, of software designed for pay.
It is not often that anyone receives better quality from a charity than from
a paid effort. Beggars can’t be choosers, consumers can be.
