NewsForge: Turbolinux's turnaround game plan: Closed-source products included

"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."

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