Microsoft sees sales hurdles ahead

TalkBack 24 of 26:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

Well, it's still there. so let's see how long we can discourse

Personally, I don't fault your proposed alternative, because we do see joint venture companies in many areas every day.

But where I am not following is in your projections as to what could be; rather, I think we can deal with the "is." In the specific situation of Linux, I have not heard either IBM folks nor those from HP complain about a "holding back;" they have expressed nothing but delight at the prospect of competing on the basis of their hardware products. The way the IBM reps put it in terms of the strategy switch from AIX was "not to make a better Unix, but to make Linux better." I am very favorably impressed by what these companies are doing in this case.

Now as for firing programmers in favor of volunteers, again I have trouble following. IBM was founded in 1911, and HP in 1939. These companies have been dependent on employees, not volunteers, for longer than I have been alive. And remember, their accounts are riding on proper performance of their products. Any savings from getting rid of employees would introduce a real risk of loss of account. No, in my view, these companies are highly motivated to retain those valuable assets. Moreover, they are not replacing their assets with volunteers, so I don't think we need to theorize that they would.

I see a problem in that a lot of people have generated a lot of meaningless hype with regard to open source. I and my colleagues in other organizations routinely contribute labor hours to common endeavors, because we know in the long run we get back more than we expend. The nuts out there that project this "give everything away" model do nobody any good, and they are not rooted in anything resembling reality.

Like I said above, I see nothing inherently wrong with your model, but the current approach doesn't appear broken, so it would be hard to sell a change.

Posted by: IT_User   Posted on: 01/29/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More? A Few Small Changes May Dramatically Increase Your Efficiency VMware Companies have rapidly adopted server virtualization over the past few ... Download Now
• Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Iinfrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now
• The Impact of Virtualization Software on Operating Environments VMware Today's use of virtualization technology allows IT professionals to ... Download Now