Rjack wrote:
Rjack wrote:
From the findings of fact in US v. Microsoft (1998)
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm
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Open-Source Applications Development
51. Since application developers working under an open-source model
are not looking to recoup their investment and make a profit by
selling copies of their finished products, they are free from the
imperative that compels proprietary developers to concentrate their
efforts on Windows. In theory, then, open-source developers are at
least as likely to develop applications for a non-Microsoft operating
system as they are to write Windows-compatible applications. In fact,
they may be disposed ideologically to focus their efforts on
open-source platforms like Linux. Fortunately for Microsoft, however,
there are only so many developers in the world willing to devote
their talents to writing, testing, and debugging software pro bono
publico. A small corps may be willing to concentrate its efforts on
popular applications, such as browsers and office productivity
applications, that are of value to most users. It is unlikely,
though, that a sufficient number of open-source developers will
commit to developing and continually updating the large variety of
applications that an operating system would need to attract in order
to present a significant number of users with a viable alternative to
Windows. In practice, then, the open- source model of applications
development may increase the base of applications that run on non-
Microsoft PC operating systems, but it cannot dissolve the barrier
that prevents such operating systems from challenging Windows.
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Note the prophetic finding of Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson:
"In practice, then, the open- source model of applications
development may increase the base of applications that run on non-
Microsoft PC operating systems, but it cannot dissolve the barrier
that prevents such operating systems from challenging Windows."
So what has changed? A gain of maybe 2% (exclude proprietary Apple)
in market share of non-MS operating systems in the past ten years?
Seems to me that the open source business models are an abject
failure compared to proprietary models.
Sincerely,
Rjack :)
if they were an abject failure then /nobody/ would be using them.
I suggest you look at the Linux installed base for such things as:
PDAs
cellphones
digital satellite/cable receivers & DVRs
GPS systems
mp3 players
routers
network attached storage systems
web servers
supercomputers
...and then compare that with proprietery installed base for same.