Return to BSD News archive
Xref: sserve comp.unix.misc:10622 comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit:5212 comp.unix.bsd:13149 comp.windows.x.i386unix:5982 biz.sco.general:9585
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!sgiblab!spool.mu.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!uhog.mit.edu!news.mtholyoke.edu!jbotz
From: jbotz@mtholyoke.edu (Jurgen Botz)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.bsd,comp.windows.x.i386unix,biz.sco.general
Subject: Re: SCO market share
Date: 21 Dec 1993 17:52:20 GMT
Organization: Mount Holyoke College
Lines: 73
Message-ID: <2f7d4k$2en@slab.mtholyoke.edu>
References: <1993Dec11.012449.99@kf8nh.wariat.org> <9312142221.aa02201@fags.stonewall.demon.co.uk> <2f4qd0$k9f@slab.mtholyoke.edu> <sheldon.756428144@pv141b.vincent.iastate.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: orixa.mtholyoke.edu
In article <sheldon.756428144@pv141b.vincent.iastate.edu>,
Steve Sheldon <sheldon@iastate.edu> wrote:
>In <2f4qd0$k9f@slab.mtholyoke.edu> jbotz@mtholyoke.edu (Jurgen Botz) writes:
>>I wouldn't be so sure of that... especially for large consumers
>>(i.e. big corporations) free operating systems to which they have easy
>>access to the source may turn out to be cost-effective to support and
>>more reliable in the long run. Time will tell, but so far the signs
>>are good.
>
> This attitude is completely contrary to the marketplace trends. More and
>more companies are trying to get away from software written and supported
>in-house, to use generic commercial software supported by others.
"in-house software" and free software are two different issues. And
while you're right about in-house developed software, there is another
visible trend here that agrees with my statement when it comes to free
software (more about that below).
> Here at Iowa State this is even the trend. In the past the university had
>the source code to DEC's Athena, and fixed and patched as bugs cropped up,
>then relaying those patches back to DEC. Now, they've gotten to the point
>where they want to plug DEC's software in, have it work, and if it doesn't
~~~~~~~~
>work report the bug to DEC, and have DEC fix it.
"want to". Let me know if it works... Even if DEC's Athena support
group is a lot better than their Ultrix support group, all I can say
is: good luck!
> It really is a lot easier for a company like DEC to keep on staff a couple
>dozen programmers who know their operating system inside and out, then for
>each and every university or company to keep on staff one or two people, in
>addition to their regular support staff, to fix operating system bugs.
Well, DEC's OSes aren't free software... a given Univ. may have a source
code license but they have to work more or less in isolation, in which case
you are of course right. It's not the same when 10,000 people all have
the source code and are fixing bugs and communicating and so forth.
> I feel your ideals are very noble, but they are out of date in today's
>marketplace.
Well, you missed my main point... no, I don't think that small
in-house support teams are the wave of the future... only /very/ big
organizations will have in-house support teams for free software.
What I believe will reveal itself as a trend is for organizations to
purchase support for free software from third-party companies that
specialize in supporting free software. And the rocket-like growth of
Cygnus /does/ indicate that there is a real market trend there (it's
hard to generalize from a single company, but Cygnus is only the most
visible example... similar companies are springing up all over the
place and very successful.)
Also, you may be aware that the GNU compiler is now being maintained
by a guy who is getting paid by a consortium of larger software
companies (I think it's 20 different companies... it says something
about this in the "GNUS Bulletin" that was distributed at the summer
Usenix.) This sort of thing would have been hard to imagine a few
years ago. Another thing that supports my claim of a visible trend is
that more companies are starting to build on top of free software
and/or releasing parts of their products as free software... witness
NeXT's use of the GNU compiler, or Lucid Emacs, etc.
No, despite what you say the trend is unarguably there... it still
remains to be seen how it plays out, as one can say that right now
people are experimenting with these concepts but that they might move
away from them in the future if they turn out not to have a positive
effect on the bottom line, but until then there is a trend, and I
believe that it will keep growing.
--
Jurgen Botz, jbotz@mtholyoke.edu | ``Accountability is the price of openness''
South Hadley, MA, USA | - Daniel Geer