“Recent benchmarks have shown Linux running less quickly than
Windows NT. This may seem significant, but it is not. Linux is open
source, developed lovingly by the doves of the IT world. It is a
product, it might be argued, and it does pose significant
competition to comparable products such as Windows NT. It does not,
however, behave as a product. It does not stand up to cost-benefit
analysis, because it does not have a financial cost. Different
models must be applied.”
“Die-hards of the Linux community would say that the reason
Linux is successful is because of the huge numbers of idealistic
hackers who are prepared to make something beautiful. They’re
wrong. Linux is moving mainstream because the vendors see it as an
opportunity to make money. In any business, there are some things
that are given away for free and others which are paid for. With
the technological advances that are currently being made, new
business models have been invented which take advantage of this.
But it was ever thus. The huge advantage of Linux to vendors, is
that it is already free – vendors can give away something for
nothing, but at minimal cost to themselves.”