Open Source Versus Commercial Software
July 16, 2009
Keir Thomas’ “How Open Source Can Beat the Status Quo” hits some of the Whack a Mole buttons that kill the little beastie. He also punches some buttons that lets the creatures live to pop up another day. Two readers insisted that Mr. Thomas’ analysis was on a par with sliced bread and power gardening equipment.
The point of the write up for me is that open source is a hot topic. No push back from me there. The leap is that open source is a problem for Microsoft in general and in particular because of the Google. The Google is using open source as a way to turn up the heat on Microsoft. He wrapped up his PC World article with:
Google has always been an open source company. Its search engine has run on Linux since day one, and when it was looking for a platform on which to build its Android mobile operating system, it didn’t hesitate in choosing Linux (imagine how unthinkable it would be had Google decided that it would use Windows CE instead; such a decision would have been greeted with hoots of laughter). Google has also made efforts to support Linux with its desktop products, such as Google Earth (even if the products themselves aren’t open source). There’s little doubt that, should Google launch any further software products or platforms in future, there’s a strong chance they’ll be open source. In many key ways, Google uses open source as a weapon with which to beat Microsoft over the head. Google uses open source to define itself, and thereby illustrate the difference between itself and fuddy-duddy Microsoft (a trick also used by Apple, at least a few years ago). The Google people also know how much open source irritates Microsoft and how using open source destroys Microsoft’s traditional “fear, uncertainty and doubt” (FUD) approach to discrediting open source. The next time somebody asks you what Linux ever did for anybody, point out that the Google search they just did was facilitated by it.
Now here’s one of the issues I have. Notice the word “always” which I have put in bold. That’s one of those categorical affirmatives like “infinite” that can drive some folks crazy. Check out the Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity by Amir Aczel.
I am not sure that the Google is an open source company. I have documented in my Google trilogy some innovations that are not likely to find their way to a Sourceforge link. I also pointed out in this Web log or one of my talks that Google’s implementation of Java is a one way street. Google makes it easy to get in. Google makes it a bit harder to get out of its walled garden.
Second, Microsoft’s problems extend beyond open source. These include cash outflows from most of its business units, leaving the company vulnerable to a company that can chop into desktop application and server revenue. Maybe the Zune will hit a home run? Maybe the Bing billions will pay off? But these are problems that have little to do with open source, and, as such, are in my line of thinking, more fundamental.
Finally, the fear uncertainty doubt game is now in the major leagues. Every company plays it, including Google, and most of the start ups pitching to organizations literally uncertain of what to have for lunch, let alone what to have in the organization’s computers.
The article is okay, but I don’t think I can cheer for it as loudly as the readers who see the analysis as one of those cherished moments in intellectual history like Boston Consul ting’s cow dog star diagram or Parkinson’s Law.
Stephen Arnold, July 16, 2009
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3 Responses to “Open Source Versus Commercial Software”
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Stephen,
I agree with your points.
I’ve not read the original PC World article from Keir Thomas, but from your post, it doesn’t seem to me to be an article about “Open source vs Proprietary software”. It could have been titled : “how is Google leveraging Linux and some other open source software to beat Microsoft”.
Alain