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Netcraft Interviews Brian Behlendorf

Posted by timothy on from the aternatives-in-action dept.

thejackol writes "The co-founder of the Apache Web Server Project and the First Chief Engineer at Wired Magazine was interviewed by Netcraft's Rich Miller about Netcraft's growth, the SCO case's unexpected benefits and changing the world through software. Excerpt: 'It's a good rebuke to the cynical but widespread notion that all it takes is a big pot of gold to litigate your competition out of existance or otherwise win a legal challenge. Good did prevail in the end. Hopefully it won't make us too cocky, because the next challenge could be much harder to fight.'"

15 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Apache shows what is right with OSS by ObviousGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Easy to install on any platform. Easy to administrate. Easy to use. Straightforward interface. And best of all, it is well supported.

    The GNU/Linux project could learn a lot from these guys.

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
    1. Re:Apache shows what is right with OSS by lukewarmfusion · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But it doesn't run .NET!

      That was a joke, at least for me. But many clients don't see it as a joke, they see it as a serious obstacle to using OSS. Fortune 500 companies with Microsoft networks, servers, procedures - they're unlikely to adopt an "unsupported" product like Apache. I say unsupported because Microsoft doesn't support it, and they already have support contracts for MS products. They don't have their toes in the water, they're bathing in it.

      You can't use many of your ASP apps on Apache (even if you have Chilisoft!). We have clients that turned to us because we can do ASP/SQL Server, and the competition couldn't. The other quote was cheaper, too.

  2. A good rebuke? by mccalli · · Score: 3, Insightful
    It's a good rebuke to the cynical but widespread notion that all it takes is a big pot of gold to litigate your competition out of existance

    SCO are attacking IBM. Pots of gold don't come a great deal bigger than the ones IBM have at their disposal.

    Cheers,
    Ian

    1. Re:A good rebuke? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Hmm ... large pots of gold might not help to sue other rich corporations out of existence, but a large pot of gold, the many lawyers and very large (valid or otherwise) patent portfolio it will buy, will probably service to crush your average poor, lawyerless, open-source programmer. No contest.

  3. Litigate your competition out of existance? by Phidoux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why can't one software product "beat" it's competition simply by being better? Why the need to litigate? Be No. 1 because your product is the best, not because you need the law to make it No. 1.

    --
    Free Firefox news reader.
    1. Re:Litigate your competition out of existance? by millahtime · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why can't one software product "beat" it's competition simply by being better? Why the need to litigate? Be No. 1 because your product is the best, not because you need the law to make it No. 1.

      This is a dog eat dog world. Look at the NO 1's and look at the best product and they are not the same. To get to the top lawsuits, strong arming and many more things are used. That's just life.

      --
      Evolution or ID?
    2. Re:Litigate your competition out of existance? by 0BoDy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      According to this theory, Microsoft would make the best software in the world, and McDonalds would make the Best food. Sometimes the better product wins. Sometimes the better marketing wins, some people are given market share and leverage it to their own advantage, others have to build a far-surpassing product in a new market. Reminds me of the way I see minorities excelling in business. They have to do the same job twice as well, for the same pay. It's not right, and it's not fair, but it ceartainly makes for overall better products and economy if the improvements required to get ahead drive the whole market.

      --
      Can I be a Luddite too?
    3. Re:Litigate your competition out of existance? by rmolehusband · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why can't one software product "beat" it's competition simply by being better?

      Sadly, there are few markets where being 'best' automagically makes you number one. Factors such as installed base, brand perception and pure and simple FUD can always swing things for a far poorer product.

      --
      Reginald Molehusband. Edinburgh, Scotland
    4. Re:Litigate your competition out of existance? by KrispyKringle · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Depends on what you mean by best. I don't see it as a given that McDonalds' is not the best food, or that Windows is not the best OS. Capitalist markets are a little like evolution. Humans may very well be the epitome of evolution--or so we like to think--but cockroaches will probably be around a hell of a lot longer. So it is with markets; any number of OSes may be technically superior to Windows, but you have to admit, it does just what needs to be done to be successful (anti-competitive practices aside).

      For example, I may argue that Microsoft has a terrible security record and therefore must clearly have their heads up their collective asses (so I have argued before). But one would be justified in pointing out that most consumers don't really consider security as much as they consider new features, so Microsoft made a wise choice in deciding to implement OneNote or voice chat in MSN Messenger when they could have been conducting code reviews. I might argue that Apache is far better than IIS (and I don't see much of a counter argument), but those who use IIS will say that without a decent graphical configurator, they just find Apache too difficult to use. Same goes for VB; I sure as hell wouldn't use it for what I do, but for basic desktop application stuff, there's no real problem with it.

      What'd I say? Just like cockroaches.

    5. Re:Litigate your competition out of existance? by Ruprecht+the+Monkeyb · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There is rarely a single definition of 'best'. If you value ready availability and price over selection and atmosphere, maybe McDonalds does make the 'best' food. If you favor ease of installation and interoperability (with other people, not software) over security and initial cost, maybe, for you, Microsoft does make the 'best' software.

    6. Re:Litigate your competition out of existance? by Artifakt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Your point on markets isn't invalidated by it, but the whole point of Natural Selection is that humans aren't an epitome of evolution, and there just isn't really any pinnacle or focal point to evolution. Those cockroaches we share our buildings with have been evolving precisely as long as we have. They have survived various evolutionary selection mechanisms just as well as we have. Nature isn't seeking to produce intelligence, or any other feature we might find can let us divide organisms into 'higher' and 'lower'. Everything we are evolving along side of is equally fit.
      The problem I have with your using an evolutionary metaphor is that applying it to capitalism is just what leads to social Darwinism. Microsoft probably firmly believes it, to the extent they belive that being selected by the forces of the market is the same as being at the predestined peak of the natural order.
      It isn't. If ignoring security is really that potent a failing to nature, then nature will select against Microsoft. If millions of people were wrong about the relative importance of security, then nature will select against them too. Public opinion is not a court of no appeal - Natural Selection is.

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
  4. hyperreal by damian · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hmmm... they forgot to mention the great work he did on SFRaves and http://www.hyperreal.org/

    Maybe a bit too underground for your average CV

  5. Best? by 0BoDy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    While I love Apache and trust apache as mutch as the next slashbot, I would like to point out that appache was also one of the first webservers. Originally written as a patch to the http deamon for unix/bsd. They cam out riding on the pigtails of an existing market leader. Microsofts IIS hasn't realy ever taken the lead there, nor will they, untill they shore up the product and secure it better. They'll also have to find a licensing scheme that can compete with Apache's open source license. Better product yes. Is that the reason for market dominance? yes, but only becuase it always has been.

    --
    Can I be a Luddite too?
    1. Re:Best? by Roadkills-R-Us · · Score: 2, Insightful

      First to market means nothing with MS around. They've eaten plenty of other apps.

      While Apache was originally "a patchy" version of NCSA's httpd, they still did things right, or they wouldn't have taken off in the environment at the time; NCSA or another offshoot would have stayed dominant. The Apache folks did the right things, and not *just* with the software (although they certainly did a fine job there!)

      Even with IIS's problems, until recently, IIS were was gaining market share and threatening to take the lead. Apache's dominance was in doubt. The growing acceptance of Open Source has been critical in Apache taking off again, as well as the security issues with IIS.

      Finally, you said: ``Better product yes. Is that the reason for market dominance? yes, but only becuase it always has been.''

      Better product means *nothing* in the marketplace. Sales and marketing, cubic dollars, FUD, perceived safety, and a variety of other factors make the difference. (Speaking as both a geek and a consumer, that sucks, but it's reality.) Otherwise, the original DOS-based PC would have never made it; there were much better alternatives to both DOS and the hardware platform. But IBM understood all the issues above (and more), and things took off. MS rode IBM's coat tails in that case; Bill Gates (or someone at MS) understood marketing and business, and a clearly inferior product won the day.

  6. no! faulty legal system. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    That's not "just life", that's the result of a faulty legal system in the US. It still pays more for MS to continue strong arming and breaking laws, when all they have to do is pay a fine. Another example is the MPAA and RIAA 'sponsoring' the feds to hunt down movie and music downloaders/traders instead of going after more important things like murders and terrorists. i'm moving over seas.