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Torvalds: Business World Boosts Linux
XGN writes "News.com has an article posted, quoting some of Linus Torvalds' keynote speech and getting into detail how business is boosting Linux. "Technologists often forget the general user," Torvalds said. "Technology is only as good as the user experience. That is something that technology groups very often forget." Linux companies aren't just parasites because they make sure much of the "boring" bug-fixing and other maintenance gets done.
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Something the article cited caught my attention:
He said it will be for the market to decide which journaling system gets chosen. Right now there are two main contenders, ReiserFS and ext3, an improvement to the current Linux file system, ext2. In addition, SGI and IBM have journaling file system work under way.
It struck me that put simply, free software can be nothing other than a free market. The barriers to entry are very low. You have to be competent and credible, or you are ignored, but you don't need a marketing machine and shelf placement at nationwide retail chains. And the only constraints preventing project forking are cultural.
Plus (and I know I keep bring this up), we adhere to publically documented interfaces. If nothing else, the source is the documentation of the interface. Anyone can read it.
Together these factors add up to the opportunity for multiple solutions to arise. In the case of journaling file systems, the demand is clearly there, so the solutions are springing up.
The two sides of the free market equation are both illustrated by this example. Multiple producers competing to be the best solution. And those same projects acting as customers bidding for developers to work on them. In both cases, they are bidding with technical merit and project credibility. On one side, they have to convince users to use them. On the other, they have to get programmers to enhance them.
We are all consumers, and we are all producers. What makes the free software marketplace interesting to watch is that a large portion of the community acts as both in the same space. And the currency with which we buy is the most valuable thing we have, our time.
The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
After many people complained about the Mindcraft benches thinking it would undermine Linux, something positive happened. Mindcraft pointed out where Linux needed help and the developers worked on it. The fact that Linus doesn't casually ignore problems like M$ does will insure that Linux will be superior (if it isn't all ready) to the other OS's out there. Next time a benchmark comes out with everyone yelling "FUD!! FUD!!" why don't you just take it with a grain of salt and then fix the problem that was exposed. Sometimes getting a good old-fashioned butt kicking is good for the soul.
Note: I am not saying I support biased benchmarks just that we should encourage an honest comparison to other systems whether we like the results or not.
So Linus, what are we going to do tonight?
The same thing we do every night Tux. Try to take over the world!
In the article, Linus is quoted about DVD:
"This is a perfect case of companies who want to screw their customers over," Torvalds said today, drawing cheers from the crowd of thousands. The DVD industry "wants to control the market not by being a good technical solution, but by just locking customers into a certain solution."
I wonder if Linus would consider testifying in the case. That would legitimze the "interoperability with Linux" arguement in the eyes of the court.
Torvalds said he hopes "the DVD consortium will lose this lawsuit, and we'll just have DVD on Linux," but if that doesn't happen, he hopes commercial companies will license the appropriate software.
Actually, I hope nobody licences the software. If they do we should boycott it. If we can't watch purchased DVD's on our terms, then to hell with them. I bet as Linux grows for home use that the economic blunder the MPAA is engaging in will start to sink in.