CNET News: Reconsidering Linux

“Proclamations of Linux’s commercial success are frequently
punctuated with statements about how some analyst firm has found
that sales have grown faster than has any operating system since
1999, or that Linux server shipments make it the second most
popular operating system for servers.

“To me, this kind of ‘Linux as product’ mentality misses the
entire point of Linux and the open-source development model that
created it.

“Linux is not a product. Rather, Linux is a collection of
software components, individually crafted by thousands of
independent hands around the world, with each component changing
and evolving on its own independent timetable…”

Complete
Story