
The Economist's Open-Source Quintet 25
LarsWestergren writes "The latest issue of The Economist has an interesting group of articles on software, including The Beast of Complexity, Open Source, Sun, Microsoft and the Battle of the (next generation) Platforms, XML alphabet soup, and Software Integration. Not technical, in-depth or error free, but still a good overview, and a hint of what the suits of the world find interesting in computer culture." A good thing to point your boss to, if necessary. Economist articles often include some interesting graphs -- in this case, for instance, there's an interesting chart (though from aging data) on Linux developers by their email suffixes attached to the second of these articles.
Windows putting the PC on the map (Score:1)
Re:damned questions marks.. (Score:1)
Interesting Survey ... (Score:1)
just mindless jerks? Maybe those sad enough to log in at the weekend (written at 6.26 Sunday morning, ouch!)
iNTERESTING rEAD.. (Score:1)
A couple things (Score:1)
Linux is not a microkernel. It is a well designed monolithic kernel that manages to use microkernelish code when it's efficient to do so.
Microsoft is very unlikely to build an OS around GPL code. They are adamant in their hatred of the GPL and their belief they have a god given right to make money off anything they release, even if it uses other peoples code. They would want to code support for their API into the kernel, and they wouldn't want to send you source for their forked kernel, bottom line.
What they do instead is use BSD code to try and get NT to work.
"That old saw about the early bird just goes to show that the worm should have stayed in bed."
Re:guerilla next-gen (Score:1)
This is surely the way of the future...
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A "me too" for the article (Score:1)
I do an occasional Raytrace, but really...waiting 20 minutes longer is not an issue. For the rest all my processorpower is donated to Seti@Home.
A long time ago, I was always willing to put down a lot of cash for the latest, newest, fastest and even professional hardware. The motto was, "if the stores have 8Meg RAM standard, I will need 16 or 32", oh, and not to forget the biggest harddisk (in SCSI of course) and the biggest and meanest CPU. But now look: under my desk stands a stock consumer PC, staight from a computer super store. I don't need more...in fact the screen was more expensive than the computer itself. There are two possibilities:
Re:An excellent magazine (Score:1)
One of the best articles about ecommerce and the internet in the Economist some three years ago or more were actually written by a very kind American gentleman, who felt much at home in Britain.
I wonder, if it's the same author again. Unfortunately I can't find a reference.
damned questions marks.. (Score:1)
Aaaugh! Question marks instead of apostrophe's are all over this damned article! Isn't it about time someone developed a hack to fix this?
-- juju
Re:Sun versus Microsoft? Guess again. (Score:1)
The next big app may not even run on our 60year old VonNeuman machines. Nobody knows. Nobody should care. It will happen no matter what anyone plans or anyone says.
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~~ the real world is much simpler ~~
/. effect? (Score:1)
Open Source doesn't pay.... (Score:1)
CoasterCount.com [coastercount.com]
Re:Hmm.....what?? (Score:1)
Yes, but because of Microsoft, more people are fustrated with Windows than with any other operating system. :)
Seriously, no matter your opinion on this fact, it was Windows that really put the PC on the map and in the majority of the households in America.
To butcer a certain Bruce Campbell movie, "Good, bad, I'm the guy with the OS."
guerilla next-gen (Score:2)
Fascinating, but I want the next generation platform to evolve, not out of Sun, Microsoft, IBM, HP, Exodus, etc., but out of Mojo Nation [mojonation.net], E [erights.org], Chord [mit.edu], FreeNet [sourceforge.net], etc.
Open source projects, with ambitious goals for self-healing, self-organizing networks, tolerant of diversity, resistant to any conceivable attack, and free from the manipulations that mega corps inevitably introduce in their unceasing quest to gain monopoly power.
Re:The best out there... (Score:2)
As I recall, in the end they explained why the concerns were unfounded/mitigated. As a pro- free-trade/world-trade publication, they must write this story with this conclusion in mind.
I agree that the economist is a very well writen magazine, but remeber no matter how good the writing you are still being sold thier company line.
--locust
Re:An excellent magazine (Score:2)
The economist has its own biases. It is a capitalist publication. These views are evident in its editorial policy, the subject matter it persues (the stories that are not writen), and the recomendations of its columnist on given issues. This is not to say its a bad publication... Simply be aware, that just because a you are not being beaten over the head with propaganda your are being given an objective view of a situation.
--locust
An excellent magazine (Score:2)
Being a British paper, they do a good job of getting the news across, neutrally. I never read American weeklies anymore: It's all the same propaganda dog food.
I'm glad that someone had the bright idea of pointing out their computer articles to
Hmm.....what?? (Score:2)
Uhm....what Microsoft has done to the PC? You mean, fuck it over completely and turn it into a horrid, unusable piece of unstable manure?
Understanding the paradigm shift ... (Score:2)
Unfortunately what we are lacking is new courses/theory/tools on how to adapt applications for a n-1 computer-person relationship. Peer-2-peer is just an example of bad marketing of a really difficult concept. How do you get 2 or more machines into a consistent or synchronised state. This is the difference between having a dog on a lease and herding cats. Whatever solves this scalability issue is going to be create a whole new set of products/services (cough*.NET*cough). Why? Because traditionally data processing has been considered a pipeline process (following the manufacturing model) where it gets transformed from low-order to higher more structured order. Instead the network allows multiple pathways, multiple sourcing. This is illustrated by the fact that raw music (MP3s) might actually be more valuable (to someone like a DJ mixing/blending new tracks) than the finished packaged album (which is limited to only listen to). Allowing the consumer to gain access to the intermediate stages of production will be a long-term benefit but for now, it is anathema to vertically integrated businesses which is why they are being very careful with their EULA.
It is going to be an interesting decade ahead.
LL
Re:guerilla next-gen (Score:2)
I used to have some repect for The Economists (Score:2)
The best out there... (Score:2)
Nothing written by human hands can ever be truly objective, so the best you can hope for is a magazine that honestly states its editorial standpoint, and gives thoughtful consideration to alternate viewpoints.
And on top of that, there's usually a great deal of wit and humor in each issue. The Economist rocks.
Blame management (Score:2)
Maybe Microsoft is deliberately creating that situation so that only all-Microsoft systems will work.
JBoss (Score:2)
Sun versus Microsoft? Guess again. (Score:3)
MS built its success on Windows, which benefited from the pervasiveness of cheap IBM compatibles. Sun built its success on SPARC workstations and servers, which were powerful enough to be cost effective network boxes, despite their proprietary technology. Neither platform has a central place in the net-centric future, and both companies know it. Hence various "next generation" initiatives. But no serious observer is impressed by any of these.
Java has always been a solution in search of a problem [sun.com]. Not that Java hasn't had its successes, but it has a longer list of failures: web "applets" (except for a few Yahoo games), thin clients (I don't count terminals that run GUI server apps -- these are "clients" only in marketspeak), platform-independent Office suites, smart appliances... the list goes on and on. Java has been underrated by people who don't understand the strengths of bytecode VM technlogy, but also overrated by true believers. It will always have a role, but that role is limited.
Somewhere a Finnish (no wait, we've been there) or Chinese or Nigerian computing geek is sitting down at his P90 box, cursing his flickering monitor and slow connection, and coding the killer app that he can't afford to buy. He'll upload a copy somewhere, millions of people will discover they can't live without it, and our geek is on his way to being on the cover of Time. That is that future of network computing.
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