Will Linux Benefit from Microsoft's SNAFU in Massachusetts?

O'Reilly ^ | Sep. 28, 2005 | Tom Adelstein

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

David Berlind over at ZDNet wrote a remarkable article called Did Microsoft send the wrong guy to Massachusetts' ODF hearing?. If you missed this article, you'll have missed the equivalent of what Intel's Andy Grove called an inflection point. This one has the potential to have more impact than the release of the first Pentium processor.

...

Microsoft has essentially alienated the rest of the IT industry. I can't remember a single company that had so many people working in harmony against it, including IBM at the height of its arrogance. The Java Community Process provides just one example of an industry working again a company.

[Golden Eagle]

I want on your open source ping list, but I guess realists aren't allowed.

As far as the liberals in the state of Mass go, passing laws requiring or denying any type of software are wrong. Of course, they're just following the lead of of Cuba, Vietnam, Venezuala, etc who have similar mandates.

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^The trickiest part is installing it, which these people aren't going to be doing.^^^^^^^^^^^

Even that is easy. Just use Suse or Fedora. I'm sure there are plenty others which are graphical install.

[sitetest]

Thanks for the ping.

[Golden Eagle]

You do remember their comments from/about napster, right?

Sure, we all do. I hope you're not trying to claim most of the files transferred on the original Napster were legally transferred. Or are you?

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

^^^^^^^^^^You seem to be confusing market domination with a monopoly.^^^^^^^^^^^

Yeah, fair enough.

A monopoly would be more like what Intel had for years but they weren't forceful about it. At least..... not until AMD became a threat. Now they are in trouble in japan.

^^^^^^^^^^^^Why make sure you have the best product?^^^^^^^^^^^

This goes back to the domination aspect.

They don't have the best product, so they have to do what they do. Which is the whole point. People would've chosen something else because of clear benefits and MS knew it.

^^^^^^^^^^^Where does it say that the best product is always going to win the market?^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Nowhere. The best product doesn't always win the market. But there's a clear difference between the consumers choosing and microsoft themselves choosing.

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

Add me to the list.

:-)

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

^^^^^^^^^I hope you're not trying to claim most of the files transferred on the original Napster were legally transferred.^^^^^^^^^^^

Not at all.

I'm claiming that DRM is the child of MS's marriage with the recording industry/hollywood.

We're all thieves. And they're determined to stop us.

It drives me up the wall that these people immediately point the finger at us. Thieves! Scoundrels! blah blah.....

They never stop to think about the music and movies they're making. Why would I want to pay for that crap? There are still a select few artists who sell like crazy, they *aren't* making crap.

This isn't a fascist or communist society. DRM needs to be fought.

[Sthitch]

The customer only ever has the say in buying what a company wants to sell to them, no matter what the industry it is the company’s choice on what to add or not add to a product. The customer only has the power to influence a company's product direction based on their spending habits. When I worked in software sales, I would see time and again when we went to our product managers and told them what our customers were asking for. Their response was "will they buy more if we add this feature?" The answer was always no. They would follow up by asking "will they buy another product if we don't add this feature?" If the answer was yes, it might get added, if no, the idea was shelved.
This is how it works in development. If you can provide an adequate product at what the customer perceives to be a reasonable price, you have a shot at selling it. Most customers do not want the best product on the market, they want the best product for their needs.

[N3WBI3]

Consider it done..

[Golden Eagle]

I'm claiming that DRM is the child of MS's marriage with the recording industry/hollywood.

Well you'd be wrong about that too. "DRM" is a generic term, and includes technology such as CSS and DIVX used to encrypt DVD's, which has been around for years.

[ShadowAce]

...passing laws requiring or denying any type of software are wrong.

Of course they are. Now link to a bill number in either the House or Senate that says they are and I'll denounce them.

[Golden Eagle]

This decision in Mass is a decision by their executive branch, and from what I can tell you fully endorse it.

[ShadowAce]

This decision in Mass is a decision by their executive branch, ...

Then quit implying that they are passing laws in favor of OSS. Paint it for what it is--a consumer decision.

[rwa265]

Thanks for your explanations.

I do remember the Napster discussion. The only music on my computer is what came with it as demos. I listen to CD's or live stream radio stations. So I guess I'm not a thief.

I meant to delete the red hat question because I did go to Wikepedia, which said:

"Red Hat is a market leader in the development, deployment, and management of Linux and open source solutions for Internet infrastructure, ranging from embedded devices to secure web servers.

"Red Hat's name came from the manual of the beta version, which contained a request for the return of Marc Ewing's characteristic red and white-striped hat, should anyone find it."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hat

[N3WBI3]

You have to understand shadow, when a government agency sets MS windows or the .DOC format as a standard thats just good agency policy. But when an agency picks ODF as a document standard and even gives MS an opportunity to support that format (which MS refused to do) thats 'passing laws that force people to use a certain software'

MA, for once, has it right. They named a set of standards they would allow for publication of their documents. A set of standards which is open to all companies (open and closed source) to implement. The local trolls around here would have people thinking there is a law being passed outlawing Windows, Word, or Closed source software... this is not the case..

[rwa265]

Thanks for your explanations.

I do remember the Napster discussion. The only music on my computer is what came with it as demos. I listen to CD's or live stream radio stations. So I guess I'm not a thief.

I meant to delete the red hat question because I did go to Wikepedia, which said:

"Red Hat is a market leader in the development, deployment, and management of Linux and open source solutions for Internet infrastructure, ranging from embedded devices to secure web servers.

"Red Hat's name came from the manual of the beta version, which contained a request for the return of Marc Ewing's characteristic red and white-striped hat, should anyone find it."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hat

[B Knotts]

That's another side benefit of moving office computers to Linux. The users can't download and install a bunch of junk.

Although, Windows can also be set up like this. But, usually isn't.

[Golden Eagle]

This is an edict from their excutive branch of government. Mr. Eric Kriss has been working on it up there for years, here's an article from 2003:

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2003/12/22/open_source_battle_is_heating_up/

The future of the computer software industry was being fought out last week in the Massachusetts Senate. Our state's role in the drama began in September, when a remarkable memo leaked from the office of Eric Kriss, Massachusetts secretary of finance and administration. The memo said, or seemed to say, that the entire state would abandon the use of traditional computer software and replace them with "open-source" programs.

[ShadowAce]

Still waiting for a Bill number....

[Still Thinking]

This simply shows that Microsoft did not and does not have the monopoly that the chattering class claims they had. If Massachusetts can shakeup the computer industry by making what amounts to a consumer decision not a statutory or legal one this should prove there monopolistic contention null and void.

I strongly disagree with your reasoning. I'm not even taking a position on whether MS is a monopoly or not. But it's far more newsworthy if a good sized customer decides to quit buying a product sold by a monopoly than it would be if the market were divided more diversely. For example, if the state of Taxachusetts decided to drop Staples as an office supplies vendor in favor of Costco, would any of us care? No.