From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262905AbTD0HM4 (ORCPT ); Sun, 27 Apr 2003 03:12:56 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S263379AbTD0HM4 (ORCPT ); Sun, 27 Apr 2003 03:12:56 -0400 Received: from hermes.fachschaften.tu-muenchen.de ([129.187.202.12]:3271 "HELO hermes.fachschaften.tu-muenchen.de") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S262905AbTD0HMz (ORCPT ); Sun, 27 Apr 2003 03:12:55 -0400 Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 09:25:05 +0200 From: Adrian Bunk To: "Downing, Thomas" Cc: Kernel Mailing List Subject: Re: Flame Linus to a crisp! Message-ID: <20030427072505.GH10256@fs.tum.de> References: <170EBA504C3AD511A3FE00508BB89A9201FD92C9@exnanycmbx4.ipc.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <170EBA504C3AD511A3FE00508BB89A9201FD92C9@exnanycmbx4.ipc.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Fri, Apr 25, 2003 at 08:36:00AM -0400, Downing, Thomas wrote: > From: Adrian Bunk [mailto:bunk@fs.tum.de] > > >On Wed, Apr 23, 2003 at 10:43:37PM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote: > >>... > >> And hey, the fact is (at least as far as I'm concerned), that as long as > >> you make the hardware, you can control what it runs. > >>... > > > >Linux is currently widely used and through this there comes some power. > >Let me try to make examples where this might be important: > > You cast these comments in the context of corporate use, so - > > The primary reason corporations are beginning to adopt Linux is TCO > - and such adoption is in its early stages, though growing. Such > adoption is _only_ to the extent that Linux will run specific > applications. > > Companies do _not_ adopt Linux because it is the only OS on which > their critical applications run. They don't adopt it because it's > the coolest OS out there. All the corporate required applications > run on other O$'s. If support for a facility percieved as desirable > or necessary (in this case, DRM)is not available in Linux due to the > terms of the GPL, corporations will drop Linux in a heartbeat. > > Some companies (viz certain very large financial institutions) are > only now just beginning to write applications _on_ Linux. When > Linux has a majority market share, with the rest of the market in > disarray, _then_ you have some power; but only for a limitted time. There are even in bigger companies already many production machines running Linux. I don't say that it's impossible for them to switch to a different OS, but this would be a non-trivial switch (if this is critical infrastructure) and a non-cheap (both for training the staff for a different OS and for buying soft- and perhaps hardware) switch. cu Adrian -- "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days. "Only a promise," Lao Er said. Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed