Slashdot discourse is low grade, guys, and only serves to confirm my Linux pessimism.
You disagree with me about Linux by saying I'm old, clueless, corrupt, it's been a long time since I invented Ethernet, I didn't really invent Ethernet, Ethernet is no good anyway, 3Com was taken from me because I'm a bad businessman, 3Com is not Cisco, and I've been wrong about everything else (for example, Internet gigalapses in 1996), so I just must be wrong about Linux.
RHAT and LNUX were both trading today below 19% of their highs, which has nothing to do with me. They'll lose at least another 50%, I'm sure.
FYI: There are THREE business models at issue. There is the old IBM+Microsoft model. There is open source. And there is my favorite, the Ethernet model, or Internet model -- open standards with owned implementations competing fiercely.
Now, if you really want to get back at me for thinking this, buy my book and burn it. It's Internet Collapses and Other InfoWorld Punditry, now in its third paperback printing from IDG Books./Bob Metcalfe
Dear Slashdot.org/com (again), Am continuing to read the 100s of/. posts reacting to my InfoWorld column on Transmeta. Thank you... If I were a big fan of the open source movement, I would worry about the kind of people who seem to be on its side, or at least the majority of those making slashdot posts. Whew. Ugly mob... Hate to be a nit picker, but my name is spelled Metcalfe (with an e on the end) and my columns are at infoworld.com/metcalfe... It is true that I benefit when a lot of people read my columns. It is false that I am a big fan of Microsoft. It is true that I favor engineers and entrepreneurs. It is true that I oppose luddites and marxists (by whatever name). And it's really cruel the way some of you people refer to me as a "has been." Please do not waste even the energy it takes to ignore me... Now, about pigs. In my Transmeta column, I made a perfectly reasonable literary reference to Orwell's Animal Farm, in which certain lead characters happen to be pigs. I am sorry to those in the open source movement who think I called them pigs. Fact is, I live on a farm, and we love our pigs. Dogs look up to people, cats look down on people, but pigs is equal, we say. It was in the same neutral way that I have likened Microsoft to a skunk... Also, there seems to be confusion about the difference between hardware and software, which these days isn't much. Transmeta itself says that Crusoe is mostly software... So why shouldn't Crusoe mask sources be open? Many people have written that people can change Linux but not Crusoe, so Linux can be open but not Crusoe. But most people using Linux (99%+) don't look at the sources, and would never think of changing them. Similarly Crusoe. But were Crusoe to be open, other chip makers could access Crusoe sources, they could help debug them, help evolve them, be free to customize them, competitively manufacture them -- you know, all that good open source stuff. So, why not? Seems to me that all arguments against Crusoe being open apply to Linux as well.../Bob Metcalfe
Dear Slashdot, The slashdot.org discussion of my current column about Transmeta starts with Hemos mischaracterizing what I wrote at infoworld.com/metcalfe, but what else should we expect? Hey, I never said that Crusoe only runs Windows. Enough of that. Read my column before flaming -- I need the hits. BTW, shouldn't it be slashdot.com instead of.org? Half of the hundred e-mails I got tonight said nothing more than that I am a moron, an idiot, clueless,..., and just like Rush Limbaugh. Guys, you got to me, except I'm a Rush fan. On the X86 thing, why does Crusoe have to be X86 to run Linux? Wouldn't it be better to have Linux run native VLIW on Crusoe? Why bother morphing and caching Linux into VLIW if you can just compile it?/Bob Metcalfe
Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot discourse is low grade, guys, and only serves to confirm my Linux pessimism. You disagree with me about Linux by saying I'm old, clueless, corrupt, it's been a long time since I invented Ethernet, I didn't really invent Ethernet, Ethernet is no good anyway, 3Com was taken from me because I'm a bad businessman, 3Com is not Cisco, and I've been wrong about everything else (for example, Internet gigalapses in 1996), so I just must be wrong about Linux. RHAT and LNUX were both trading today below 19% of their highs, which has nothing to do with me. They'll lose at least another 50%, I'm sure. FYI: There are THREE business models at issue. There is the old IBM+Microsoft model. There is open source. And there is my favorite, the Ethernet model, or Internet model -- open standards with owned implementations competing fiercely. Now, if you really want to get back at me for thinking this, buy my book and burn it. It's Internet Collapses and Other InfoWorld Punditry, now in its third paperback printing from IDG Books. /Bob Metcalfe
Dear Slashdot.org/com (again), Am continuing to read the 100s of /. posts reacting to my InfoWorld column on Transmeta. Thank you... If I were a big fan of the open source movement, I would worry about the kind of people who seem to be on its side, or at least the majority of those making slashdot posts. Whew. Ugly mob... Hate to be a nit picker, but my name is spelled Metcalfe (with an e on the end) and my columns are at infoworld.com/metcalfe... It is true that I benefit when a lot of people read my columns. It is false that I am a big fan of Microsoft. It is true that I favor engineers and entrepreneurs. It is true that I oppose luddites and marxists (by whatever name). And it's really cruel the way some of you people refer to me as a "has been." Please do not waste even the energy it takes to ignore me... Now, about pigs. In my Transmeta column, I made a perfectly reasonable literary reference to Orwell's Animal Farm, in which certain lead characters happen to be pigs. I am sorry to those in the open source movement who think I called them pigs. Fact is, I live on a farm, and we love our pigs. Dogs look up to people, cats look down on people, but pigs is equal, we say. It was in the same neutral way that I have likened Microsoft to a skunk... Also, there seems to be confusion about the difference between hardware and software, which these days isn't much. Transmeta itself says that Crusoe is mostly software... So why shouldn't Crusoe mask sources be open? Many people have written that people can change Linux but not Crusoe, so Linux can be open but not Crusoe. But most people using Linux (99%+) don't look at the sources, and would never think of changing them. Similarly Crusoe. But were Crusoe to be open, other chip makers could access Crusoe sources, they could help debug them, help evolve them, be free to customize them, competitively manufacture them -- you know, all that good open source stuff. So, why not? Seems to me that all arguments against Crusoe being open apply to Linux as well... /Bob Metcalfe
Dear Slashdot, The slashdot.org discussion of my current column about Transmeta starts with Hemos mischaracterizing what I wrote at infoworld.com/metcalfe, but what else should we expect? Hey, I never said that Crusoe only runs Windows. Enough of that. Read my column before flaming -- I need the hits. BTW, shouldn't it be slashdot.com instead of .org? Half of the hundred e-mails I got tonight said nothing more than that I am a moron, an idiot, clueless, ..., and just like Rush Limbaugh. Guys, you got to me, except I'm a Rush fan. On the X86 thing, why does Crusoe have to be X86 to run Linux? Wouldn't it be better to have Linux run native VLIW on Crusoe? Why bother morphing and caching Linux into VLIW if you can just compile it? /Bob Metcalfe