Novell sees a 'both-source' future

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History Repeating Itself

Novell asserts that the future of software development will not be found in the open-source or proprietary models, but in one that combines the best of both worlds--or "both source" as the company calls it.
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Messman asserts that the opposing software development camps must learn to coexist in a symbiotic relationship. "The future is going to be 'both source'--not open and not proprietary. The industry needs the profits from proprietary software to help fund open-source developments," he said.

The problem with what is asserted above, is the fact proprietary software and socialized OSS (i.e. GPL flavored OSS) are diametrically opposed to one another ? just like democracies and communist societies. There can at best be only limited interaction. Socialized OSS masquerades as a proponent of freedom (just like its political counterpart) by promoting the giving away of ones own software property (and rights) which is the basis for individual prosperity. If an individual or company does not have the right to own property (or forgoes this right) how can it begin to accumulate wealth directly from the management of its property? If I?m not able to own a house, how can I buy it at a low value and sell it at a high value and make a profit?

I believe that the apparent success of companies such as Red Hat and IBM with socialized OSS is not sustainable. Just as how the Soviet Union initially beat us in several critical areas such as the space race, but later sputtered, I believe a similar fate lies with socialized OSS. In a sense, we are seeing a replay of what happened in the world of economics and politics taking place in the computer industry. The Soviet Union spread its influence over Europe and this lead to the rise of the Eastern Bloc. Countries were overwhelmed, and peoples? liberties were taken away from them, by people claiming to be providers of freedom. These people were championing the rights of the collective over the rights of the individual. IBM and socialized OSS proponents unleashed OSS Linux on the commercial Unix market, which has overwhelmed that market. Revenue from commercial Unix is now only a fraction of what it used to be. (This arrangement is fine with IBM because IBM apparently doesn?t care that much about commercial off-the-shelf or non-services type software. If this software segment becomes eliminated by socialized OSS, the market will return to the days when it was [IBM?s] hardware that dominated, and software was just a means of selling hardware.) Despite what socialized OSS has done to the Unix market, I believe just as how the US and Western Europe managed to adapt to the Soviet threat and prevail against it, MS and many proprietary companies are beginning to do the same. MS in particular is proving once again that Western democratic, free market methods are better than socialist (community centric) methods. MS is producing software that is outperforming socialized OSS in almost every category ? while producing higher returns on investment for consumers. I believe it is almost a given that MS and proprietary software will prevail against socialized OSS ? proving once again that those (including companies) who do not learn from history, are destined to repeat it.

Posted by: P. Douglas   Posted on: 09/13/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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