Open source radicals--eat cake

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The GPL is Just Plain Bad for the Computer Industry

The real issue with OSS is the fact that its proponents insist on forwarding the principles of the GPL as being healthy for the software industry. What principles are these? That private ownership of intellectual property is a bad thing, and that software should, for all intents and purposes, be made available for free. How can a healthy software industry thrive in such an environment? What incentive will there be for proprietary software companies to make R&D investments? What incentive will there be for proprietary software companies to listen intently to their customers ? or else suffer the consequences to their companies? bottom lines?

I can understand hardware companies like Dell and HP taking advantage of OSS ? if it helps sell their hardware. But even these companies are playing with fire. Software and hardware form a closely coupled ecosystem. Hardware companies advance the raw capabilities of computers; software companies take advantage of these capabilities and come out with new products that require hardware with even more horsepower. This is the cycle that has grown the PC industry for past few decades. Widespread adoption of OSS under the principles of the GPL, threatens the software component of this ecosystem. It is proprietary software that overwhelmingly comes up with innovations ? which OSS in large part merely copies into itself. It is proprietary software that provides an environment that gives rise to the decent salaries that attract the best and the brightest people ? who are the ones that come up with the great innovations. When companies like IBM, Novell, Dell and others support OSS / the GPL, they place undue pressure on proprietary software ? and indirectly, on themselves. Yes, these software companies are making good money from OSS now. But it is only because their efforts have not overwhelmed proprietary software?s influence on the computer industry. Just imagine if all Operating Systems became GPL/OSS. Do you really think we would be enjoying the innovations in software we are now seeing in the PC market? Where would they come from? From amateur developers ? since after all, they would be very few professional developers left in the software industry?

If OSS manages to displace proprietary software (as is their proponents dream) by too great an amount, the software industry will slow down to a crawl, and hardware companies like IBM, HP, Dell, and others who make money from OSS, would be hard pressed to sell new hardware, as the innovations in software that before drove people to purchase new computers from them just wouldn?t be there. Also another important point: each computer a hardware company sells with proprietary software, provides that hardware company an opportunity to upgrade its customer in the future. This simply does not exist for OSS to the degree it does for proprietary software.

Posted by: P. Douglas   Posted on: 03/02/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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