osOpinion: Breaking Up Microsoft Is Not Enough

[ Thanks to Kelly
McNeill for this link. ]

“It is often amazing to some who observe the Open Source
community how Linux enthusiasts can be so “forest for the trees”
blind in their exuberance. In a couple of articles written for
osOpinion some time ago, this author set forth a radical notion.
That is: Linux IS a very capable OS. And there are some products
that are immediately useful (like Apache, KDE Office, Inprise Tools
and others). The real SUCCESS of Linux will only come when
developers, team up with entrepreneurs who will finance product
development that has general appeal and long term reliability at an
affordable price. Boy! Talk about the flame mail in my email box.
You would have thought I had published a pornographic epic or
something. I was worse than uninformed according to some flamers –
I was a FUD monger! No doubt this article will draw the same
criticism. But, the truth is the truth, no matter how much you
ignore it.”

“Recently, there have been dozens of articles, expounding the
same notions, which appeared on the web and in newsprint (a couple
of articles have even appeared in the Wall Street Journal). Also
Check out this Afr editorial: Linux Down as Microsoft holds up.
Another example is the ZDNet article by John Taschek that appeared
on their web site. Instead of “getting it”, the same “as usual”
articles appear on osOpinion attempting to prove how wrong Mr.
Taschek and writers like him are and how right Open Source and
Linux enthusiasts are. Wall Street and Industry analysts just can’t
be right, according to some. Even Red Hat’s most influential
executive had to get sucked in by this craze (read Bob Young’s
article “Open source is here to stay”). This article, forthcoming
in spite of the massive recent decline of Red Hat, VALinux, and
other Linux related stocks on the market. The sad part of it is
that the ZDNet article and the Bloomberg article have a valid
point. A point that seems to almost continuously escape the Linux
community….”

“Demonizing messengers like Mr. Taschek and myself for
pointing out the truth may make for steaming controversy on
osOpinion or LinuxToday, but it does little in terms of what really
needs to happen for Linux and the Open Software
community.“

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