Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 10:17:10 +1000 From: Alastair Rankine <alastair@cia.com.au> To: Adrian Filipi-Martin <adrian@ubergeeks.com> Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: solaris is free. Message-ID: <359F0E1C00000331@clarence.progmatics.com.au> (added by clarence.progmatics.com.au) In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980812180359.8689K-100000@lorax.ubergeeks.co m> References: <19980812014614.B16463@mooseriver.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
At 06:08 PM 12/08/98 -0400, you wrote:
>> My guess is that Sun is beginning to feel the heat from FreeBSD and
>> Linux. Last time I looked very few people we running Solaris on X86. Mayby
>> they are starting to worry about all those older Sparc's running NetBSD.
>
> I'd like to think so, but IMHO solaris x86 has never been a winner
>for SUN. I doubt they have much to loose by this move. SCO has and
>continues to dominate the commercial intel unix world. SCO also has had
>the same type of offer open for both UnixWare and OpenDeathtrap for a year
>or so now. They have much more to loose in the intel market.
I think we're seeing a trend emerging here. Company has commercial Product.
Due to commercial pressures, Company is unable to make profit from Product.
In the past Company would simply announce "maintenance mode" for Product.
Now, Company simply releases source code or makes it free or something
along those lines, and reaps the benefit in good PR.
I'm still waiting for the other shoe to fall: Company drops Product.
It seems unlikely to me that Company would all-of-a-sudden grok the idea
behind free/open software and be able to radically change their business to
suit. Even if they do grok the idea, companies, especially big ones like
Sun and Netscape, don't change direction very quickly. Their inertia simply
prevents them from radically changing their core business from selling
software to, err, not selling software. Pretty soon they'll realise "wow,
we spent a shitload of money developing software and got no return on it".
Then the blame will be laid on the free (open source, whatever) software
idea and the backlash will start.
Netscape is really out on a limb, not just for it's own survival, but for
the credibility of open software.
This is a shame because their new direction, the Netscape "portal", is
simply the latest attempt to turn the Internet into a TV. This is bad. A
few large corporations already have dominance over all other forms of
media. The Internet is not (yet) dominated by corporate interests, and I
would like it to stay that way. But that's a rant for another day...
(Just my opinions, worth what you paid for 'em :)
--
[ Alastair Rankine ] [ mailto:alastair@cia.com.au ]
[ http://www.cia.com.au/alastair ]
[ pgp5 64E4 B67C D2B7 EEC4 63C9 AA74 F63A 9AD9 E44B 21C7 ]
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?359F0E1C00000331>