Andreesssen: Why Open Source Will Boom - in 103 Words

An anonymous reader writes "You gotta love Marc Andreessen's 12 reasons why Open Source is set to boom: can anyone use fewer than 103 words and still adduce as many reasons as he does?"

Comments

Hmm, I smell a slashdotting

[Anonymous Coward]

"The Internet is powered by open source."
"The Internet is the carrier for open source."
"The Internet is also the platform through which open source is developed."
"It's simply going to be more secure than proprietary software."
"Open source benefits from anti-American sentiments."
"Incentives around open source include the respect of one's peers."
"Open source means standing on the shoulders of giants."
"Servers have always been expensive and proprietary, but Linux runs on Intel."
"Embedded devices are making greater use of open source."
"There are an increasing number of companies developing software that aren't software companies."
"Companies are increasingly supporting Linux."
"It's free."

Re:not trolling but..

[rokzy]

just because they aren't new doesn't mean it isn't true.

some of them are stronger now e.g. IBM and Novell/SUSE.

but linux actually being good is also required. linux is constantly improving. conversely (imo), windows is getting worse (activation BS, DRM, unTrusted computing pushes).

while MS might be able to push all this DRM BS on home users via stupid DMCA-style laws, flexible computing is too important for business and education institutions to let the BS in. and these places have the resources to use linux and make it even better.

Re:Open source benefits from anti-American sentime

[danharan]

Some good points have been made already.

The balance of payment situation has been mentionned, but I think it also has something to do with security concerns as well as countries wanting to develop an indigenous software sector.

Basically, your whole economy is dependent on outside investments to keep running, and that's hurting your currency. Some have suggested using the Euro for petroleum sales to hurt the dollar further, possibly causing a recession in the US (obviously aiming to affect the next elections).

If you are unsure how deep anti-American sentiment runs, consider the last Pew Research Center annual survey on attitudes towards Americans. The percentage of people that think suicide bombings against the US are justifiable is just plain scary.

So while the BOP, security and protectionnism all play to a certain extent, I wouldn't underestimate the sheer resentment against the US.

Documentation? my ass

[Interfacer]

I am a professional software developer, and program often in C/C++ on both windows and linux.

when programming device drivers on linux, i was often frustrated at the lack of up to date specifications of functions and interfaces. for example the documentation about PCI functionality is hopelesly out of date, and specifies functions that are mentioned in other places as 'they are obsolete and you should not use them. EVIL EVIL'.

the old functions did have man and info pages. how nice. the new functions did not have them.

compare that to developing on windows. not everything is nice, but the MSDN documentation collection for developers is the best documentation ever, and includes not only a complete function reference, but also tons of samples that -shock horror - actually work.

even on mandrake 10, the developers documentation is crap.

regards,
Interfacer.

Re:Documentation? my ass

[nathanh]

compare that to developing on windows. not everything is nice, but the MSDN documentation collection for developers is the best documentation ever, and includes not only a complete function reference, but also tons of samples that -shock horror - actually work.

I'm always impressed by how good the OSS documentation is. OK, I can relate to your experience of Microsoft documentation being better. I have to agree. Microsoft, Cisco, Intel and IBM are all first rate in the documentation department. But have you used documentation from other vendors? Dell? Nortel? Shudder. It's enough to make you cry.

OSS documentation isn't always the best, but it's quite often not the worst. GNU documentation is consistently shoulders above UNIX documentation. Linux kernel documentation is lacking but GTK and GNOME documentation is good. Perl documentation is excellent (though that sort of language needs it). Popular server applications for Linux like Sendmail, BIND, Apache are all extremely well documented both for developers and users alike.

I agree with you that writing device drivers for Linux is like stumbling through a darkened room filled with lethal boobytraps. Linux isn't a stable API or ABI (yet). Other OSS can be much better. It's no different to the commercial world where some vendors are good at documentation and other vendors definitely are not!

Re:Windows is well docuements

[davegust]

Windows is very well documented, both for developers and users. The availble APIs are fully documented in a consistent manner, and Microsoft does an excellent job of making sure future operating systems properly support all documented APIs.

And for the sibling poster who claimed documentation is not free, check out the following links.

• MSDN Library
• Resrouce Kits
• Security Bulletins

I've been developing for Windows for 15 years and have never purchased API documentation. I used to purchase books for examples and ideas, but I haven't done as much of that over the last five years - online sites, both Microsoft sponsored and others, have filled the need.