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Linux Feels Growing Pains
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "As Linux enters the mainstream, adopters 'are demanding many features found on commercial software, including a large variety of add-on application programs and management tools that are easy to use,' the Wall Street Journal reports. 'How quickly open-source programs can narrow the gap with commercial software is a hotly debated topic in the computer industry. The transition may determine whether the technology will continue its momentum, or stall in the face of tougher competition at the heart of corporate computer networks.' Eric Singleton, chief information officer at retailer Tommy Hilfiger Corp., which recently switched its e-commerce site 'Tommy.com' from Linux to Microsoft software, calls Linux 'a great product,' but adds, 'it's got to get the final tier of reliability and predictability that I'm going to bet a multi-billion dollar corporation's future on.'"
Good point Eric, with MS you're almost guaranteed to get hacked. Now THAT's predictability!
"Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Thoreau
A corporation moving off of Linux to Microsoft! The Sky must be falling.
Let the flamefest commence....
I choose Microsoft (I mean I choose to work there), and wait, they did fire me!
Software freedom...I love it!
After reading it, the article could have been summarized as this...
Microsoft good... linux bad. Really, trust us... we're as independent as your checkbook needs us to be.
--WooooHoooo--
You know how hard it is to get source out of those linux guys, Thank You Microsoft for saving us from our multi-vendor lock out.
of Tommy Hilfiger, who said he has greater confidence in a single vendor in controlling the evolution of its products. "They jumped through a lot of hoops to help us out."
Translation:
PAYOLA and Deep Discounts. Sent out a few FAEs to help out Tommy boy. Pretty tuff for the KDE guys to do, but RedHat not able?
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
My personal guess is that Mr. Singleton was fully able to cash a check from Redmond though.
I really don't think any company can make money from meer support of a product.
The problem is that meerkats, or meers for short, can't use computers. Further, they don't usually have any money to buy things with. You'd be hard-pressed to even find a meerkat that can talk. Companies hoping to make money from meer support are using a business model that's destined to fail.
Clearly the way to go is to make money from human product support. Dog, gorilla, or ninja product support are also possibilities, though these are much more shaky business models, and should probably be accompanied by other revenue streams.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
Linux has finally reached the Kirk Cameron stage, but it has a ways to go before it hits Alan Thicke critical mass.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
Not fiddling is the key to good availability, and IT folk are nothing if not keen fiddlers. I fiddled today and broke stuff, and I know better.
:D
Hey, if it ain't broke, you haven't fixed it hard enough, eh?
What sells is a product with substance, which TH is not. It takes no talent to mate a pair of jeans with a white T-shirt and a crappy two-color flag logo.
If Linux wants to be successfully sold as a product or a brand, it needs to be sold as a product with substance.
Gee, that paragon of pop-culture idiocy tommy hillfucker switches from linux to bgInc. A glowing endorsement of, I don't know!...
Good thing the 'CIO' went back to his Gartner whitepapers and impacted his leverage to grasp the low-hanging fruit and the end of the day, realizing a soup to nuts solution to information lifecycle management with an abiding vendor commitment.
doy!