IBM Releases Desktop Linux Presentation

An anonymous reader writes "DesktopLinux.com, in coordination with the Desktop Linux Consortium, is making select presentations from Monday's groundbreaking Desktop Linux conference at Boston University's Corporate Education Center available. Sessions from the well-received program included talks from key companies and open source projects bringing Desktop Linux into the enterprise. The first presentation available is from IBM's Sam Docknevich, Linux and Grid Services Executive for IBM Global Services and is titled "Open Source Desktop - Directions for today... and Tomorrow". His presentation discusses IBM's push into the Linux desktop market, an initiative from inside Big Blue."

Comments

IMHO, Open source is bad for the economy

[Anonymous Coward]

It annoys me that Linux developers try to compete with commercial companies. Listen: you are destroying bussiness! Sun will probably be the first casualty. With no commercial companies left, there will be no innovation. I propose the following "constitution" for open source developers:

1) I will freely license my code for use in commercial products (ie, use BSD license not GPL.)
2) If a commercial equivalent exists for what I'm developing, I will not try to market it as a replacement for the commercial product.
3) My software will not be targeted at the average consumer (read: no easy to use UI, no easy installation process).

So basically, you can develop research software, specialized software, etc. But please, if no-one buys MS Office and d/ls openoffice instead, innovation in word processors and spreadsheets will stop. We do not want this.

Re:IMHO, Open source is bad for the economy

[andrewa]

Hey Bill G./Steve B., you forgot to log in.

Re:IMHO, Open source is bad for the economy

[sm.arson]

Wow. This post is so off-base I don't know where to begin. Call me a conspiracy theorist geek, but I'd bet that you're some kind of microsoft employee.

#1 is stupid: why should I automatically let somebody commercialize code that I've been working on for free with the intent that my code shall be freely distributed? Corporations should not be able to feed off the open source community for commercial purposes.

#2 is even dumber: if there is a commercial product out there, anybody should be able to work on an open-source replacement. If the commercial product were perfect, then nobody would waste their time trying to replace it. The last time I checked, no existing piece of commercial software has attained this status. Competition, open-source or otherwise, is the primary incentive for software developers to improve the quality of their wares.

#3 is the worst, and I'll quote this one directly, as I anticipate your post being moderated -1 flamebait: "3) My software will not be targeted at the average consumer (read: no easy to use UI, no easy installation process).

Who the hell is paying you to post this? Are you suggesting that open-source developers should make their software as difficult to use as possible? Are you saying that the job of making software that benifits the general population should only be given to large corporations? I suppose that only microsoft is qualified to create software for the "unwashed masses."

Everybody should have the option to choose whatever piece of software they want to use. They shouldn't be force-fed one kind of software or another. If existing software companies have to have all of their open-source competitors outlawed for them to turn a profit, it only goes to show how terrible their software really is.

Re:IMHO, Open source is bad for the economy

[Anonymous Coward]

Hear that "whooshing" sound? It's the joke, going right over your head.

Amusing

[whig]

I really liked this picture. (Bill Gates getting bitten by a penguin.)

I sadly feel abused

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux Desktops are commercially available (e.g. Ximian) is written on one of these slides. I feel so abused for my volunteer work on GNOME.

TODO List For Linux Desktop

[EventHorizon]

1. Fix X to be fast, non-bloated.
2. Fix KDE to be fast, non-bloated.
3. Fix Gnome to be fast, non-bloated.
4. Fix Mozilla to be fast, non-bloated.
5. Fix OpenOffice^W^W Write a new Office Suite.

Not trolling: Go install Fedora and see how it runs on a three year old machine. There's quite a lot of work to do.

Also:

6. Standardize on one version of Solitaire.

Powerpoint....

[Lord_Dweomer]

Maybe before developing for Linux, IBM should develop an alternative to Powerpoint.......