will lack of corporate support kill off Linux?

[Mike Coleman]

"Philip, Anil" <aphili01 at sprintspectrum.com> writes:
> Just a discussion ;), but have you been noticing (like I have) how reluctant
> corporations are to use open source - even though they are willing to buy
> any crap software at any price as long as it is "owned" by a company so that
> someone is liable.

I've have noticed this, yes.  It seems that the more dysfunctional a company
is, the more concerned they are with having someone to blame, versus actually
having software that works.  As they say, you'll never get fired for going
with Microsoft, but truly excellent companies/projects don't think this way,
IMO.

> For example at my workplace, linux is not used, not allowed. In my earlier
> workplace, same story (we're talking the biggest phone companies in the
> country).

That's pretty funny (albeit perhaps in a gallows sort of way).  When I worked
at Sprint PCS, I don't remember any official projects that used Linux, but I
do recall seeing it used in a number of places (including on my desk) to solve
real problems.  (I don't doubt what you're saying.  I'm sure it's more the
usual "problems being solved in spite of the bureaucracy" thing.)

> Will this sideline open source to academia and maybe kill it off eventually?

It probably depends on how you define open source, but as for Free Software,
it's hard to see it ever dying.  I suppose some businesses might make an
effort to kill it off, but since their competitors will have it as an
advantage, it wouldn't be very smart.

Even if Free Software were outlawed for all commercial purposes (dream on,
Microsoft!), it wouldn't disappear, any more than drum corps (www.dci.org) has
disappeared for not being picked up by the recording industry.  These
activities are done for love, not gold.

--Mike

-- 
Mike Coleman, mkc at mathdogs.com                                      Windows XP
http://www.mathdogs.com                                               Linux :)
problem solving, expert software development