[ Thanks to Kelly
McNeill for this link. ]
“Why do the trade publications fear Linux? One obvious
explanation is that they get most of their advertising revenue from
Microsoft and other vendors of Windows software. The Linux upstarts
such as Red Hat typically advertise in Linux-oriented ‘zines. As
Linux grows in popularity, the Linuxines can be expected to grow in
circulation at the expense of mainstream publications such as
Computer Shopper.”
“But I think there is something deeper. Microsoft will be
remembered as a miracle of marketing because so many PHB’s have
warm fuzzies about it. It portrays itself as a lighthouse sending
reassuring beams of light over the dark, stormy seas of IT. It is a
known quantity, safe and comprehensible. Even its failures are
predictable. We know that its software will be released late and
will be full of bugs.”
“Linux, on the other hand, is the monster in the closet. It is
the dark, terrifying underside of IT. No-one controls it and no-one
understands it, as far as IT journalists and PHB’s know. They don’t
know where it came from or how big it is. They know only that it is
very powerful and it is everywhere.”