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Subject:RE: LinuxWorld Show...where's the beef? From:holmegm -at- comcast -dot- net To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com (TECHWR-L) Date:Fri, 23 Jan 2004 14:49:27 +0000
John Posada wrote:
>Bruce...I did a complete lap around the outside before I went into the
>middle. Not great pickins. And as far as openoffice.org...cool...the
>success of Linux is based on how there is an application that already
>looks like an existing application.
>Whoopee.
Linux is an operating system, a platform for running applications. I'm
not entirely sure what you mean by "the success of Linux", but anything
that might mean sure isn't "based on how there is an application that
already looks like an existing application." Though if people *want*
"an application that already looks like an existing application" it
surely can't hurt that there is one?
>RE this "why sell when things are free" stuff...Oracle was there. I
>didn't go into the booth, a rather large booth...I don't need Oracle
>right now, but I'd assume they don't give their database away for free.
So, you were first complaining about a lack of enterprise apps to buy (rather
than use for free), but Oracle doesn't interest you, or doesn't count?
>Stop thinking small-time. I couldn't care about a web browser clone, or
>a Word-replacement clone...I already have them. I mean
>APPLICATIONS...off the top of my head...big-time development tools,
>content management tools (Documentum?), enterprise authoring tools
>(i.e., Arbortext), Rational Rose-UML-type tools, business process
>modeling (i.e., CA AllFusion ERwin).
Have you looked (and I don't just mean at booths)? There are some amazing
tools available, most of which run on multiple platforms beyond Linux (thanks
to gcc and the many development tools that use it).
Most of the basic tools and toolkits for building enterprise apps are free,
and if you want them prebuilt you can pay for them. Just like the rest of the
computing world, except there the tools and toolkits aren't usually free.
>Which is why my company went to the Gardner conference in Las Vegas a
>little while ago and the consensus from the Fortune500 CIOs was that
>there's little real advantage for converting an enterprise to Linux
>aside from running a DB or web server stuff.
Their loss (the CIOs). This is a domain you really have to *want* to look at
and understand - it doesn't come walking into your office with a visitor's badge
and a lunch budget (well, it might from IBM, but I digress ...).
Otherwise very intelligent people seem to have a blind spot here, recognizing
the utility of open source.
