Joerg Anders writes: | On Thu, 3 Jul 2003, Bernard Hill wrote: | > I confess I don't understand the Linux setup *at all*. | | Perhaps interesting: Two Microsoft ingeneers, Vinod Valloppillil and | Josh Cohen had the task to answer this question in an internal | Microsoft paper, which was betrayed to the open software foundation. | This paper made history as the so-called "Halloween Document", | see: | | http://www.opensource.org/halloween | | The ingeneers came to some very interesting conclusions: | | "Linux's (...) virtues over Windows NT include: | - Customization - ... | - Availability/Reliability - ... | - Scaleability/Performance - ... | - Interoperability- ...
And in a related story that might mean a lot to the music biz, just yesterday there was the announcement of the "Linux Forum" that has been formed by most of the big consumer-electronics firms (Sony, Matsushita, Samsung, Sharp, Philips, etc.). The idea here is to develop a common platform with all of the above characteristics. The obvious competitor for all of them is Microsoft's Windows/CE system. But they have explained that in a market with competition, any company that has to include Microsoft royalties in their product is going to lose. And since the innards of Microsoft's system are not easily available to them, development on W/CE is slow and under Microsoft's control. Their target has a historic metaphor. We're all familiar with the old distinction between a "does everything" box, versus buying components and plugging them together. If you just want a single gadget and aren't too concerned with quality, you can buy a boom-box or similar all-in-one package, and be done with it. Or you can buy components, go through all the fuss of making them play nice together, and end up with much higher quality. We've long had a market for both. This "Linux Forum" idea sounds a lot like they're abandoning the boom-box approach to Microsoft and are aiming at a large market for components that speak common protocols. By sharing the low-level code and protocols, they may be able to make components that play together without the usual grief. Linux is the basis simply because they can get their hands on all the source, without restrictions or royalties. Their add-on software will be proprietary (and possibly pricey), but they've seen the advantage to making the lower layers shared across the industry. They can probably avoid charges of collusion and monopoly as long as the low-level stuff is kept open and available to everyone. One thing that has apparently been a shock to them: The new Apple iTunes store ($0.99 per track) is a fantastic success. But it uses a proprietary format that doesn't play on anything but a Mac. Apple is talking about a Windows version. This locks out ALL the vendors in this "Linux Forum" effort. They've gotta be thinking about the end of their business, with Microsoft owning the industry. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how it works out. Will there be only one big boom-box for sale? Will there be a hundred vendors of quality audio and video systems? Wait and see ... To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
