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New York Times Staff Editorial Promoting Linux
cotyledon writes "Today's New York Times editorial (Free Blah-Di-Blah) describes Linux as good for consumers and good for programmers. It recommends "Government units abroad and in the United States and individual computer users should look for ways to support Linux and Linux-based products. The competition it offers helps everyone." This is the paper's opinion, btw, and not a guest columnist."
It baffles me why Slashdot continues to post links to the NY Times with nary a mention of the NY Times random login generator. It makes my perusal of the news so much nicer.
As the government's antitrust lawsuit winds down, Microsoft's next battle may be a knock-down, drag-out fight against Linux. Like Microsoft's Windows, Linux is a computer operating system, but written and updated by volunteer programmers in a communitarian spirit, and available for free. If Linux spreads, Microsoft could see the first real challenge to its dominance of the operating-system software market. For consumers, that would be good news.
Microsoft's critics charge that its dominance of the market -- more than 90 percent of home computers run on its software -- results in high prices and reduced choice. And outside programmers have long complained that Microsoft makes it hard for them to create software compatible with Windows-based computers.
The government's antitrust lawsuit was aimed at solving these problems. If it fails to do that -- a ruling on a proposed settlement is expected soon -- the best hope may be Linux. Since Linux software is free, hundreds of dollars could be cut off the price of a computer. No less important, since Linux's source code -- the intricacies of how it works -- is publicly available, programmers don't have to get permission or assistance from anyone.
There are promising signs that Linux, which has been around for years, may finally be taking off. More than two dozen countries -- including Germany and China -- have begun to encourage governmental agencies to use such "open source" software. In the home market, Wal-Mart has started selling a home computer called Lindows, which runs on Linux. Early reviews have been mixed, but its $199 price tag shows the savings Linux could deliver.
Linux may, still, have a rough road ahead. Its informality could be a liability for the sort of serious governmental and commercial projects for which it is now being considered. And, not surprisingly, Microsoft has been working to blunt the Linux threat.
Government units abroad and in the United States and individual computer users should look for ways to support Linux and Linux-based products. The competition it offers helps everyone.
There have been (at least in WSJ); Google is your friend - although it does help to have a registration at the WSJ site.
This editorial appears in the print edition as well. Needless to say, the NYT is quite a prestigious publication. While I am surprised its editorial board has taken such a strong stance on such a geeky issue, the positive press will surely be good for open standards and free competition.
We mustn't forget that competition is the cornerstone of a free economy and that Microsoft makes a significant contribution to technological innovation. Without Microsoft's constant competitive pressure on OSS developers, the quality of open source software would suffer. Certainly Microsoft has shown that it is more than willing abuse its monopoly status and it is the duty of the Department of Justice to protect the consumer against economic hegemony. Under the Bush administration, the DoJ is failing to perform its duty. In spite of this, my sincerest admiration goes out to the OSS kernel and application developers who choose to challenge the Giant rather than merely whine about its existence.
sm
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This was posted some time ago in the discussion of another NYT article. I've been using it (for reading articles linked by
Russ
Information doesn't want to be anthropomorphized anymore.
w-w-w-w-wwwwwait a minit!!!!
.... etc.. etc....
AOL is the frigggin crapolla that alters how WinSock.dll interacts with the rest of the system. I can't tell you how many times I've had to restore someone's internet connection because they innocently installed that stupid AOL software. Sounds like AOL/Netscape FUD to me.
What about, when installing AOL/Netscape/Winamp, RealPlayer no longer
You can use user and pw "slashdotac" to log on. You don't need to register. If you wanted to, you could, and it's free.
- Have a picture
There was the September 10th article about Hewlett-Packard firing their open source evangelist, Bruce Perens, which managed to state his case pretty well, including his outrage over the flamingly hypocritical microsoft-backed "Initiative for Software Choice" overseas lobbying group.
And there was their original September 5th article reporting on that lobbying group (and really, if there's anything that Microsoft has done that screams "We want to go to hell in a hurry!" it's creating that organization). The times tossed in a nice zinger there that hinted pretty strongly about how they feel: "(Illegally stifling choice, of course, was precisely what the federal courts in the long-running antitrust case ruled that Microsoft did in the market for personal computer software.)"
The Times articles may no longer be free, but we did write-ups of them here (sept. 5) and here (sept 10) and we quoted the articles fairly heavily.
neslon
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No popups.
Capitalism is about private ownership. It isn't about choice. You can have a free market where the majority of producers are cooperatives operating from government loans, and you can have a monopoly driven economy where all ownership is in private hands.
Those are, of course, extremes, but they are illustrative that the free market = capitalism equation really isn't right.
KMSMA (WWBD?)