The Riches of Open Source

Daniel Dvorkin writes "This BusinessWeek article argues convincingly that Linus Torvalds has more resources at his disposal than Bill Gates. Not only is it a nice overview of Why Open Source Really Matters pitched to a non-technical audience, but it makes a solid argument in favor of OSS in general and Linux in particular, from a solidly capitalist perspective."

Comments

Bull CRAP

[snkmoorthy]

It's SCO All The Way, Dung Brains

love,
Darl

Bloated?

[Squegie]

Windows has always installed in under a gig, 256mb for 98se with a gui web browser, tcp/ip, and dialup-networking.

You will be hard pressed to get a suitable equivalent out of linux for the space. I saw a distro once that fit itself into 650MB and onto a cd.

I know about floppy-based distributions and such that work for text-only and firewalls, but when you start looking at things like X Windows and web browsers and the like, your hardware requirements go way beyond the 75Mhz Pentium.

The whole concept of bloated windows is laughable when compared to most distributions of linux.

Re:Who give more?

[t0ny]

Oh, I see. So Gates is using over 15 BILLION (with a B) just to get some morons on Slashdot to like him? I think not.

Please take your conspiracy theories elsewhere; they dont belong among intelligent discourse.

Re:Who give more?

[t0ny]

First, I doubt Gates would give Billions of dollars to get some losers on Slashdot to love him. Im quite sure he doesnt even know or care about Slashdot, buddy.

Second, Gates has already said that by the time he dies, he will have given away most of his fortune. If you were in his situation, I doubt you would do the same, choosing instead to build up some kind of dynasty.

Third, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is now not only the largest charitible organization in the WORLD, but Gates has already surpassed charitable contributions of any other philanthropist before him (even when you take inflation into account). And the guy is under 50 years old, and will continue for many more years.

I worked with an organization dealing with public health, and if you flip thru their trade magazines, Gates has done a real lot for that sector already, in terms of organization, focused product development, etc., which nobody else bothered to do.

So, as I said, you guys need to get over your irrational hatred of Gates and start seeing what is really going on. There is more to life than your OSS holy war, and Gates has given FAR more money to charity than Torvalds has.

Re:Who give more?

[t0ny]

And btw, how much do YOU give to charity? Its pretty selfish to say that Gates isnt giving enough, and you arent giving anything. You arent armchair billionaire-ing, are you?

Especially given that you admin not even KNOWING how much Gates is giving, its silly for you to be making this statement.

Besides, what exactly about the way Gates made his money bothers you? Is he selling drugs? Is he abusing laborers in third world countries? Is he promoting hatred or terrorism?

I work in corporate IT, and I really prefer dealing with MS. Their people are knowledgable, very helpful, and just want to see things work. Im sure you can pick anecdotes which are bad, but in almost ten years, I have had nothing but positive encounters. Im sure that is going to make people angry to hear (because it isnt anti-MS), but its true. MS is #1 for a reason, and it isnt because they are 'forcing' corporations to use their stuff.

Re:Branding, PHP, ASP

[Evil Adrian]

My troll hath been successful. Bless you, little one.