Re: [OT] Re: Troll Tech [was Re: Sco vs. IBM]

[Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@pobox.com>]

On Fri, Jun 20, 2003 at 09:02:11AM -0700, Larry McVoy wrote:
> Creating new software:  $$$$$$$$$$
> Copying existing software:       $

Agreed.  Except maybe that one dollar sign is too much :)


> The thing that is worrisome, to put it mildly, is that it takes a much
> larger effort to create new stuff than to copy it.  If you manage to 
> kill off the source of the new stuff, what do you copy?  Oh, nothing?
> OK, so now the open source community has to produce the new stuff.  
> Let's have another picture:
> 
> Revenue from commercial software: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
> Revenue from open source:                                        $ (at best)

This is misleading.  Revenue has nothing to do with whether the software
is open source or not.  Look at Digital's and IBM's billions that they
made as a service organization, where often there "proprietary" software
simply existed as a loss leader which opens doors to new service
contracts.

There is a pool of money that businesses have, that can be spent on
total IT.  At the end of the day, businesses don't give a damn whether
they are spending 80% on service, 10% on hardware, and 10% on software,
or, 10% of service, 20% on hardware, and 70% on software.  As long as
their business needs are met within the given budget, they're satisfied
to let the engineers dicker about whether OSS or proprietary software is
better.

	Jeff