Rjack wrote:
From the findings of fact in US v. Microsoft (1998)
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm
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Open-Source Applications Development
51. Since application developers working under an open-source model are
not looking to recoup their investment and make a profit by selling
copies of their finished products, they are free from the imperative
that compels proprietary developers to concentrate their efforts on
Windows. In theory, then, open-source developers are at least as likely
to develop applications for a non-Microsoft operating system as they are
to write Windows-compatible applications. In fact, they may be disposed
ideologically to focus their efforts on open-source platforms like
Linux. Fortunately for Microsoft, however, there are only so many
developers in the world willing to devote their talents to writing,
testing, and debugging software pro bono publico. A small corps may be
willing to concentrate its efforts on popular applications, such as
browsers and office productivity applications, that are of value to most
users. It is unlikely, though, that a sufficient number of open-source
developers will commit to developing and continually updating the large
variety of applications that an operating system would need to attract
in order to present a significant number of users with a viable
alternative to Windows. In practice, then, the open- source model of
applications development may increase the base of applications that run
on non- Microsoft PC operating systems, but it cannot dissolve the
barrier that prevents such operating systems from challenging Windows.
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Note the prophetic finding of Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson:
"In practice, then, the open- source model of applications development
may increase the base of applications that run on non- Microsoft PC
operating systems, but it cannot dissolve the barrier that prevents such
operating systems from challenging Windows."
So what has changed? A gain of maybe 2% (exclude proprietary Apple) in
market share of non-MS operating systems in the past ten years?
Seems to me that the open source business models are an abject failure
compared to proprietary models.
Sincerely,
Rjack :)