> ostrich play with x86. The other thing is that the > memo is focused inward, and it doesn't really offer > complete information looking outward at customers. > Just because they are changing what they're doing > with releases doesn't mean that it will work out > worse.
I'd really like to be an optimist like that. But for all that Sun had problems figuring out how to make enough money off of what they offered (or we wouldn't be having this discussion), it sure looks to me like Oracle doesn't understand that what they're doing now is alienating what would otherwise have been their next generation of customers. Why should .edu's teach something where the development is done behind closed doors? Why should those with little startup money but big ideas adopt something that's all about making the quick buck for the vendor? No, DeadRat will get their money, when their budget gets as big as their ideas, because DeadRat will be the premier support for something that's evolved in the open and was cheap (free) to start with. Nothing is _really_ free (as in beer), since you either spend your own time supporting it, or pay someone else. But when you're starting out, you can't afford to pay someone else. That's when for example the construction contractor that might freely offer honest advice (and even leftover materials) will be remembered for later, when you can afford to pay them. As long as there's at least _one_ free Unix-like OS that's somewhere remotely near as functional, Oracle does not lose money by letting people run their OS for free, since they could always run something else instead. Rather, it's very cheap advertising and good will. Even having 95%+ of the current code out in the open doesn't lose them much, since whenever someone has money to spend (or money to lose, risking on anything less), they'll go for the premier supported version. Not to mention that even having people that independently have some understanding of the OS and its internals is a far cry from independent mastery of best practices for enterprise deployment and maintenance. But there's very little evidence that they understand that their present course is not to their investors' advantage... -- This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
