Eric Raymond: Why Open Source will Rule

DNapalm writes "A very interesting two part interview with Raymond from ZDNet, talking about the success of open source and Linux on the desktop, among other things. Check out Part I and Part II (I liked part II)." Raymond also asserts that Microsoft could have killed Linux if only they'd started a little earlier.

Comments

Re:What's the next step?

[linzeal]

You mean like plan9?

Re:Not in the world of science it won't

[gilroy]

Blockquoth the poster:

non-standard packages like LaTeX and gnuplot

Well, another one zapped by the Microsoft machine. In their context, LaTeX and gnuplot are the standard. Ever wonder why the Los Alomos preprint server offers the papers in that format?

Re:"Killed" Linux?

[llywrch]

> Furthermore, his argument is that if Microsoft had started its FUD campaign back in 1998, no one would
> have bought into Linux. This is similar to charging Microsoft with failure to have a crystal ball. Back in 1998, Linux was
> barely a blip on anyone's radar.

Actually, Linux was on a number of radars. A lot of ISPs (predominantly mom-&-pop shops with little spare cash) were using Linux (& *BSD) for their servers because they couldn't afford Win NT.

And knowledge of some of this usage must have filtered back to Redmond. Remember, the infamous Halloween Papers (which were published in 1998) were written in August of 1998 after careful study of how Linux & Apache are written.

What is more cripling for Eric Raymond's argument that MS could have FUDed Linux to death is that these memos clearly state that FUD will NOT work against Open Source Software. I don't understand is why Raymond didn't remember this assertion: after all, he published the original documents.

Geoff