i’m a sucker for taking the fine art of quoting out of context to drive home a point. consider the following nuggets. although both quotes show different facets of the same point, it’s interesting to see differences in conclusions.
Eric Raymond on the VA Linux Change of Course:
“Oddly enough the people who seem to grok what this means most fully aren’t techies but economists, people like Clayton Christensen (author of “The Innovator’s Dilemma”) and Dan Shapiro and Hal Varian (authors of “Information Rules”). What they get is that the whole proprietary-software industry is probably a transient phenomenon supported by high hardware profit margins. It’s had thirty good years, but the combination of open-source development and Moore’s law probably won’t allow it many more. If this is true, the BSD way would be the doom of Microsoft just as surely as Linux; it just might take a little longer and involve less overt confrontation.”
Services First, Technology Second, People Third:
“The days of rabid profits for Microsoft through certain software sales channels are almost gone. It doesn’t seem that way to us, but Microsoft knows this. And, they feel the intense heat of Open Source. So now, the software days have been replaced. Not for many years, but we are seeing the cracks in the wall.”
“Microsoft can’t control the internet perfectly and they can’t own it directly. But why would they want to own anything? Why would they want to carry the software inventory of the internet? Instead, right before our eyes, they are building the layer over the internet that will allow for things like micropayments, highly targeted (paid, interactive) content, security based on your economic value, and control of user information. And more.”