Will Open Source Lose the Battle for the Web?

snotty writes "A well written article by Ganesh Prasad over at linuxtoday arguing that the shift towards web services has reduced the attractiveness of the current generation of Open Source web products. He talks about the market share decrease in Apache. Also mentions how .NET, Microsoft, Sun, Java, and Open Source Software fit into the picture." I think that the decrease in Apache's share is a red herring, but the bigger picture of web services is a troubling one.

Comments

Keep waiting....

[dimator]

I could not agree more with your points as to why MS is successful and why linux/open-source remains fringe. You're diagnosis is accurate, but:

-It almost seems as though the open source community needs a seasoned and very smart benevolent dictator to say what is ok and what is not.
This is exactly what will NEVER happen. This whole "movement" started because hackers hate authority, hate being told what to use, and would rather start over a hundred times than help to fix something.

I can't stand it when people say they like diversity in the desktop; they feel that having umpteen desktop environments is beneficial. How the fuck is that remotely true? Everyone's doing they're own thing, re-implementing the news client, the browser, the text editor, etc. Meanwhile, in the centralized command hierarchies of the non-free world (yes, I mean Microsoft), orders are handed down from the top (the top consists of smart people with a goal and a plan) and people spend their work days improving shit, instead of re-inventing because they don't like the leader of so-and-so project, or they don't like the other toolkits, or they'd rather do it in XYZ language.

And why the hell shouldn't centralized hierarchies be more successful? It's how civilization (and it's industries) has operated for centuries. Instead, the "movement" has dozens of toolkits, dozens of desktops, dozens of architectures - one for each ego out there.

For Christ's sake, shouldn't there be a consistent way for an app to, e.g., open a web browser to a certain URL? Sorry, no-can-do. Every app does it differently... sigh. Enough to drive you nuts.

Will we ever have the "benevolant dictator" you speak of? Not while there's ego's to be fed...

Re:To Each His Own

[AntiNorm]

Looking at Apache vs IIS, I don't think there is a lot to worry about. From the average user's viewpoint, Linux is a server OS, and Windows is a desktop OS. I don't think normal people will run Linux on their desktop's anytime soon, nor do I think that the majority of people will operate Windows based servers. Of course there are always expections. But of all of the Open Source projects, I think Apache will be the last to go.

What I don't understand is why people insist on running IIS when it is *known* to have security problems a la Code Red. Sure, they could install Linux and run Apache, but then they would *gasp* have to spend more than 5 seconds configuring it! The problem is that whether they know Linux is better or not (in terms of security, it most certainly is), most admins are too damn lazy to want to learn how to use it. They got their pretty little M$ server up and running, and are happy.

Re:Well, DUH

[garcia]

yeah but it's going to go right back down...

GET /scripts/root.exe?iisrestart

or whatever.