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IBM Releases Desktop Linux Presentation

Posted by simoniker on from the slide-8-particularly-choice dept.

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."

1 of 364 comments (clear)

  1. Re:IMHO, Open source is bad for the economy by aePrime · · Score: 1, Redundant

    It annoys me that Linux developers try to compete with commercial companies. Listen: you are destroying bussiness!

    Competition spurs innovation. Many open source developers are actually employed! They are paid by corporations to develop these open source applications, from which the company, perhaps indirectly, makes profit. IBM employes people to work on Linux, which is uses on servers it sells. Torvalds, and many other open source developers, are hired by the Open Source Development Lab, which provides services for many commercial companies.

    Sun will probably be the first casualty. With no commercial companies left, there will be no innovation.

    Sun is a major supporter of OpenOffice. In fact, it's an integral part of StarOffice, Sun's own office product. They certainly aren't against OpenOffice, which you later assert is the downfall of 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.)

    Thanks for spelling out what I can do with my code. I was afraid of all of the freedom I had.

    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.

    Yes, as aforementioned, competition is most certainly a bad thing for innovation.

    3) My software will not be targeted at the average consumer (read: no easy to use UI, no easy installation process).

    Of course, I'd hate for my software to be easy to use!

    So basically, you can develop research software, specialized software, etc.

    Phew! Again, thanks for letting me decide.

    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.

    Yes, it's true, Microsoft is the cornerstone of all innovation. I'd be a shame for MS to stop bloating their software to entice customers to buy a new version. If there were no competition from OpenSource, don't you think MS would be a lot more stagnent than it is now?