[CS-FSLUG] LINUX COMMUNITY WANTS MORE SAY IN OS DIRECTION

[Norbert Bollow]

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> Sun president and COO Jonathan Schwartz said last week that all is
> not perfect with Linux these days. Schwartz said there are companies
> unhappy with Linus Torvalds being the gatekeeper deciding what
> components are added to mainstream Linux, and that a more "open"
> approach is necessary.

That's just an attempt from Sun to create doubt about Linux in
the marketplace.  In reality, Linus and his co-maintainers are
doing a fine job.  It is true that some features which are of
commercial interest are not in the official kernel yet.  So what?
The people and companies who care about these features maintain
patchsets.

For example, I'm involved in a project developing a new generation
of industrial lasers for cutting and welding, which will have a
pinguin sticker (and Linux+DotGNU inside).  For the kernel, it is
important to have "real time" features (which allow to guarantee
e.g. that certain program code gets executed at most two miliseconds
after after a certain signal has been received from the laser
hardware).  Hence the laser company got one of the specialized Linux
kernel hacking companies involved which is building them a
specifically tailored version of Linux.  This is the economic
reality of Linux business which Sun refuses to acknowledge: There is
no problem, but the money doesn't go to companies like Sun anymore.
The money goes to small companies.  That's a good thing (as long as
you aren't Sun or Microsoft :-)

Greetings, Norbert.

- -- 
Founder & Steering Committee member of DotGNU, see http://dotgnu.org/
Free Software Business Strategy Guide   --->  http://FreeStrategy.info
Norbert Bollow, Weidlistr.18, CH-8624 Gruet (near Zurich, Switzerland)
Tel +41 1 972 20 59        Fax +41 1 972 20 69       http://norbert.ch
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