[GTALUG] Linux Unicorns

[Evan Leibovitch]

On Fri, Nov 24, 2023 at 12:19 PM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <
talk at gtalug.org> wrote:

It seems to me that Linux has won and been commoditized on the server side.
> No high-level discussion needs to address this.  Several distros are good
> enough and almost interchangeable in abilities.
>

Agreed.

The whole CentOS/Rocky/Alma/Oracle/SUSE/RHEL dustup has brought some
instability to the realm (and for those of us old enough, bears remarkable
resemblance of the old SysV/OSF1 wars). Ditto some of the jerk moves
Canonical seems to be doing to leverage the Ubuntu base. But I think that
these instabilities will settle down, even if they only evolve into
stalemates.

On the PC side, if you don't wish to demand a dedicated machine, you
> have to fit into what the market has.
> 1. Windows of various vintages
> 2. MacOS.
> 99. Linux.
>

People want virtual dedicated desktops, for something other than UI
testing? Uh, OK.
Where do Chromebooks fit into this?

Old Unicorns came from different times.  25 years ago, it wasn't obvious
> that Linux would be where it is (and isn't).
>

Speak for yourself. 🙂

I was kinda certain that Linux would overtake Unix early in its life; that
feeling was confirmed when the first Beowulf clusters came online and DEC
imploded in the late 90s, and fully cemented when Oracle bought Sun less
than a decade later. The increasing commoditization of PC components
combined with the neverending balkanization of Unix hardware increasingly
made the progression to dominance inevitable, the main issue was how long
it would take.

Netflix uses NetBSD for at least some stuff.  Making a decision like that
> today would take serious conviction.
>

BSD is still a good choice for some, so long as they're OK with
self-support. It failed to get Linux's mindshare for two unrelated reasons:

   - They got caught up in their own little petty Unix wars in the 90s,
   just when the world was looking for some platform stability (that Microsoft
   and Apple were providing on desktops). Going with one Linux distro over
   another, especially on the server side, was far less of a critical decision
   than choosing Open- or Net- or FreeBSD.

   - Also, the GPL enabled big vendors to contribute code without a
   competitor being able to take it and re-lock it proprietary, as Apple
   famously did to BSD-licensed code in Project Darwin. The GPL enabled the
   old Ray Noorda philosophy of "co-opetition" which BSD could never match



> | Does anyone on the list actually know (as in personal experience)
> | whether/which (or even if) most tech unicorns are Linux based or with a
> | Linux origin story?
>
> That may be interesting history but I doubt that it is worth consideration
> for a new business.
>

Agreed. Linux is infrastructure, not a factor in whether an effort gets
funded or expands.

More interesting is to figure out how to use the cloud without being tied
> to a particular vendor.
>

Both the choice of OS and where hosted is infrastructure, operational
issues, and rarely part of a startup's pitch. If there is a privacy or
security component to the proposal's added value the hosting may be a
factor (ie, not hosted in a Five  Eyes country) but I think even that is
less of a factor with revelations that much claimed protection is an
illusion
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2023/08/08/protonmail-fbi-search-led-to-a-suspect-threatening-a-2020-election-official/>
.

-- 
Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada
@evanleibovitch / @el56
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