Total War; SCO is only the beginning

[Walter Dnes]

  BBC webpage http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3537165.stm paints a
grim scenario.  Right now, the big threat from Open Source is in the
Operating System area.  So you see SCO trying to destroy linux.  But as
the BBC article points out...

=======================================================================
"At the moment Microsoft is under attack because GNU/Linux is an
operating system which can replace Windows.

But once we see an open source alternative to Quark Express running on
those Linux boxes, or Postgres databases replacing Oracle, and an open
source digital music store that challenges iTunes, we can expect to see
Adobe, Apple and the rest of the software industry piling in too."
=======================================================================

  Read the history books.  A century ago, as them-thar-new-fangled
horseless-carriages began impacting the buggy-whip and carriage industry,
the dinosaur industries used their lobby clout to get weird laws passed
to harass/ban cars.  Cars eventually triumphed, but there were temporary
setbacks, e.g. "the Red Flag Law".

  I've never considered myself a Richard Stallman follower in the past,
but I fear that there is no middle road.  Either Open Source wins or
Closed Source wins.  Them or Us.  I'd prefer peaceful co-existance, but
as the BBC article points out...

=======================================================================
It is time to accept that both sides cannot co-exist peacefully, because
open source offers a fundamental challenge to the business model of the
closed source, proprietary software developers, one which they must
resist if they are not to go out of business.
=======================================================================

  By co-incidence, http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5171543.html at ZDnet
has an article titled "Study: Open-source databases going mainstream".
So that could be the next battlefront for Open Source.

  This probably has some people wondering why IBM is backing linux.  IBM
is supposed to be a for-profit corporation, not a charity.  The answer
is that IBM is primarily a hardware manufacturer and consultancy
company, not a software company (Those of you in the peanut-gallery
running Multi-Mate in a DOS window under OS/2, please shut up).  OS and
software is something that adds to the cost of their hardware, and that
money goes to a third-party.  I'm showing my age, but let me point out
that I remember back when IBM had its anti-trust troubles, one of its
"sins" was giving away free software with its hardware.  IBM was able to
thrive in a free software environment 30 years ago, and it can thrive in
a free software environment today.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes-SLHPyeZ9y/tg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org>
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