Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 15:33:55 -0800
From: Hristo Doichev <donquixote@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Linux stifles innovation...
In-Reply-To: <5.0.0.25.0.20010216170349.01efc030@mail.etinc.com>
To: Dennis <dennis@etinc.com>, jesse@cats-chateau.net, A.J.Scott@casdn.neu.edu,
        Andrew Scott <A.J.Scott@casdn.neu.edu>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Message-id: <01021615335501.01104@tarator>
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On the surface you seem to make some good points.
In reality ... ?? 
Money doesn't buy the ability to innovate!
OSS doesn't, magically, enhance the ability to innovate, aither!
No one can predict where and why an innovation occurs.

The only thing that OSS does to MS is to prohibit them for capitalizing
on ideas that are born within the OSS community. This must hurt them (MS)
since there are a lot of cool ideas they (MS) would like to snatch. Just take
a look at the list of companies acquired by MS. Considering the amount of 
money MS puts into software R&D there should be nothing left for the rest of 
the world to discover or invent?! :-0 
If anything, MS is the prime example of immature and unreliable code 
(applications). Money doesn't even guarantee stability and usability of your
applications. Perhaps you are one of those rare souls that has absolutely 
no problems with MS products which, mind you, up until now were not 
experimental. On the other hand Windows XP stands, obviously, for Windows 
eXPeriment. 

Innovations by hackers that developed KDE and Gnome can change the way you 
use your computer. For instance, have you been to www.eazel.com? While
Nautilus is of no interest to me you can run an entire Linux Desktop over the 
internet by just using your browser. Try the demo ... pull up a console and 
fire off some commands, try GnuCash or something!!!! 
It is super cool and it is great technology that comes for free with just 
about all Linux distributions. I bet MS would like to be able to do the same 
...

regards.
Hristo Doichev


On Friday 16 February 2001 14:27, Dennis wrote:
> At 02:48 PM 02/16/2001, Jesse Pollard wrote:
> >On Fri, 16 Feb 2001, Andrew Scott wrote:
> > >On 15 Feb 2001, at 9:49, fsnchzjr wrote:
> > >> Watch Microsoft's Jim Allchin go Linux-bashing!!!
> > >> Nice little article on how we're all going to die of herpes from our
> > >> repeated exposition to Linux...
> >
> > http://news.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-4825719-RHAT.html
> >?ta
> >
> > >> g=ltnc
> > >
> > >That's about as self-serving a statement as I've ever seen. If this
> > >'Jim Alchin' actually believes what he's saying, he's got to be one
> > >of the worlds biggest fools, and if he doesn't believe what he's
> > >saying, well there aren't too many words that would accurately
> > >describe what he is.
> > >
> > >It's pretty funny in some ways, e.g. "We can build a better product
> > >than Linux...", which begs the question, "Well, why don't you?".
> > >Perhaps it costs too much?
>
> objective, arent we?
>
> There is much truth to the concept, although Microsoft should not be ones
> to comment on it as such.
>
> For example, if there were six different companies that marketed ethernet
> drivers for the eepro100, you'd have a choice of which one to buy..perhaps
> with different "features" that were of value to you. Instead, you have
> crappy GPL code that locks up under load, and its not worth spending
> corporate dollars to fix it because you have to give away your work for
> free under GPL. And since there is a "free" driver that most people can
> use, its not worth building a better mousetrap either because the market is
> too small. So, the handful of users with problems get to "fit it
> themselves", most of whom cant of course.
>
> Theres also the propensity for mediocre stuff to get into the kernel
> because some half-baked programmer was willing to contribute some code. The
> 50% of the kernel that remains "experimental" ad infinitum is evidence of
> that.
>
> The biggest thing that the linux community does to stifle innovation is to
> bash commercial vendors trying to make a profit by whining endlessly about
> "sourceless" distributions and recommending "open-source" solutions even
> when they are wholly inferior. You're only hurting yourselves in the long
> run. In that respect MS is correct, because those with the dollars to
> innovate will stay away.
>
> DB
>
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