[GTALUG] Linux Unicorns

[Evan Leibovitch]

On Tue, Nov 28, 2023 at 3:51 PM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
wrote:


> There is room for innovation in infrastructure but it is hard to become a
> unicorn there since the area is mostly occupied by giants:
>

Almost by definition, infrastructure cannot and should not be a place for
disruptive innovation. Even by the giants. It's the common foundation upon
which innovation sits.

I would argue that in operating system platforms, the occupation is not the
exclusive realm of the giants, though they collectively pay for a lot of
coders of Linux core components so that does give them an indirect
influence. Still no one influence holds outsized sway of which I'm aware.

The decision-making processes of IETF, GSM and other infrastructure
standards bodies are biased towards slow, incremental progress in with a
usual emphasis on not breaking things -- the exact opposite of the unicorn
"move fast and break things" mantra coined by Zuckerberg who later recanted
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_Platforms#History> once Facebook got
big enough to itself be considered an infrastructure of sorts. "On May 2,
2014, Zuckerberg announced that the company would be changing its internal
motto from "Move fast and break things" to "Move fast with stable
infrastructure"."

- Evan
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