Slashdot Mirror


Looking Back at Open Source in 2005

bhmit1 writes "BusinessWeek is reporting on the open source progress in 2005. Their conclusion: "in 2005, the software movement finally gained traction in Corporate America and saw a new influx of VC cash." Has the shift in corporate america really occurred or are activities like the profitability of Red Hat signalling that the CEO's are still holding on to the old way of business?"

5 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Companies want someone to yell at! by Ironsides · · Score: 4, Informative

    The reason why open source vendors who act more like "real" companies do well is because corporate IT absolutely demands that they have someone to complain to when everything goes to hell. Imagine you're the CIO of a 25,000 person company who depends on its IT systems to make money. I think you'd be foolish to trust that the crew of experts you hired is going to stick around, and be able to solve any problem that comes up. Sooner or later, something high-profile will die. Who do you call??

    Absolutely true. The last place I worked at was willing to buy products at 10x the price, so long as they had garunteed vendor support. Never underestimate how valuable a support contract is when your last parity drive has just failed on your raid and you have no spares left in the building.

    --
    Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
  2. Re:Be happy, not excited by DrSkwid · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion

    10^12

    The original meaning, established in the 15th century, was "a million of a million" (1,000,000^2, hence the name billion), or 10^12 = 1 000 000 000 000. This system, known in French as the échelle longue ("long scale"), was formerly used in the United Kingdom and is used in most countries where English is not the primary language. 10^12 is referred to as a trillion in the "short scale" system .

    10^9

    In the late 17th century a change was made in the way of writing large numbers. Numbers had been separated into groups of six digits, but at this time the modern grouping of three digits came into use. As a result, a minority of Italian and French scientists began using the word "billion" to mean 10^9 (one thousand million, or 1 000 000 000), and correspondingly redefined trillion and higher numbers to mean powers of one thousand rather than one million. This is known in French as the échelle courte ("short scale") and is now officially used by English-speaking countries, as well as Brazil, Puerto Rico, Turkey and Greece.

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
  3. Re:Open Source Innovation by Simon+Brooke · · Score: 4, Informative
    Will someone with a really innovative idea open source it from the beginning?




    So nothing very significant, no.



    --
    I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
  4. Re:Really occurred? by sstern · · Score: 3, Informative

    I keep beating the drum about this. There's no reasonable way to do a mail merge *to email* in Oo. It's just a couple of clicks in Word. Evolution is not as good as Outlook. I would love to go Linux on the desktop (and have done so at home), but I cannot see bringing it into the office as the default setup.

    --
    --Steve
  5. Re:Issues with Open Source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Funny, we had several scanners that were bought by a PHB. Turns out the software works with Win95, 98, etc. but not NT. Guess what we use in our enterprise? Yep, lots of scanners that don't work with WinNT.

    So, do I call the scanner company, which clearly stated on the box which versions of windows it worked with (but the PHB just understands 'works with windows'). Or do I call M$ since obviously something in NT isn't there that is in the other versions, or it is something that works differently in NT.

    Oh wait, M$ will simply tell the PHB to upgrade (at a discount price of several hundreds of thousands of dollars...)

    What a racket...and legal too!