"Last week I said that Turbolinux was one of the
handful of Linux pioneers who had begun to turn itself around in
the last year, in the face of broad skepticism about Open Source as
a business model. What has been the secret? I posed that question
to a tag team of senior managers at Turbolinux late Monday.
According to Turbo's CEO, Ly-Huong Pham, they've begun to act less
like a charter member of the Open Source movement and more like a
business -- a traditional software business.
That business may be Linux-based, but that doesn't necessarily
mean that Turbo's going to be bound by Open Source rules or adhere
to an Open Source development model. That may be an ideological
problem for Open Source enthusiasts. However, according to
engineering v.p. and "extreme Linux" guru Peter Beckman, it seems
to result in pretty good software. Having given Turbolinux's new
PowerCockpit software a test drive, I think they're right. Does
quality trump ideology? Will Open Source advocates allow closed
source software to become an important part of a Linux-based
enterprise solution?
I began my Monday evening speaking by speaking to both Pham and
her newly announced marketing v.p., Dino Brusco. I asked them about
the perceived churn at the company, its current strategic direction
and how they planned to stay in business."
