These are really my concerns as well. When the major player in Linux hardware buys up the main conduits to their potential customer base, it can't really help but stifle competition (because of the aforementioned *money thing (TM)*).
In roughly four to six weeks we will be launching TitanLogic.com. Titan Logic manufactures multi-boot Linux systems, meaning you can have most whatever you want/need on a box (RedHat, Caldera, NT Server, etc). We will be competing with not only VA Linux, but Penguin Computing and the other smaller Linux hardware manufacturers.
The site (http://www.titanlogic.com) is locked out while development work continues. Since this is the first time I've ever publically posted its existence, I'll work on getting up a "We're almost here!" page instead of an antiseptic login dialog.
But for folks like me/., as well as FreshMeat and others, is the best way to reach our potential customers. This purchase hasn't negated that fact.. it's actually made it more true than ever. But the big downside is that we'll be advertising through a company owned by our competition. From my perspective, and anyone else that is trying to bring better pricing to the Linux community, it is *exactly* like MS buying ZDNET.
Now, we're not going to wet our pants and cry on ourselves (or you). We'll finish building our site, making our pitches, and doing everything we possibly can to bring the highest quality Linux boxes to the community at a fair price, but be for sure about the facts of the matter:
*All* business is about money, plain and simple.
VA Linux is publically held and thus is accountable to its stock holders in many areas, the most important being increasing margins.
You can be guaranteed most of the people owning VA Linux (and RedHat) stock don't really care about Linux for it's own sake. They bought the stock for the same reason as any other investor: to make more money. There is nothing wrong with this in any way whatsoever.
But because the stockholders are in it for the money, they apply pressure to do the things necessary to make that money. These things consists of both internal improvements and cost effeciencies, as well as external efforts to squash the competition into small little smear marks resembling chopped liver between two cinder blocks. That's just the way it goes.
Why is this true? Because competition lowers industry prices. Lower industry prices reduce revenue. Lower revenue reduces company net worth. Lower net worth means lower margins.
This little turn of events simply means that the slope of the uphill battle to bring better pricing to the community just got steeper. How much steeper may just very well depend on the community.
Wish us luck!,/Scott
Scott Countryman - scountry@titanlogic.com CEO Titan Logic Systems http://www.titanlogic.com
Slashdot Mirror
These are really my concerns as well. When the major player in Linux hardware buys up the main conduits to their potential customer base, it can't really help but stifle competition (because of the aforementioned *money thing (TM)*).
In roughly four to six weeks we will be launching TitanLogic.com. Titan Logic manufactures multi-boot Linux systems, meaning you can have most whatever you want/need on a box (RedHat, Caldera, NT Server, etc). We will be competing with not only VA Linux, but Penguin Computing and the other smaller Linux hardware manufacturers.
The site (http://www.titanlogic.com) is locked out while development work continues. Since this is the first time I've ever publically posted its existence, I'll work on getting up a "We're almost here!" page instead of an antiseptic login dialog.
But for folks like me /., as well as FreshMeat and others, is the best way to reach our potential customers. This purchase hasn't negated that fact.. it's actually made it more true than ever. But the big downside is that we'll be advertising through a company owned by our competition. From my perspective, and anyone else that is trying to bring better pricing to the Linux community, it is *exactly* like MS buying ZDNET.
Now, we're not going to wet our pants and cry on ourselves (or you). We'll finish building our site, making our pitches, and doing everything we possibly can to bring the highest quality Linux boxes to the community at a fair price, but be for sure about the facts of the matter:
This little turn of events simply means that the slope of the uphill battle to bring better pricing to the community just got steeper. How much steeper may just very well depend on the community.
Wish us luck!, /Scott
Scott Countryman - scountry@titanlogic.com
CEO
Titan Logic Systems
http://www.titanlogic.com