Berst Names Young/Torvalds 2 of 7 People to Watch 75
De writes "Jesse Berst of ZDNet has named Linus Torvalds and Bob Young as two of his seven people to watch in the next decade. In a gratifying side note, Bill Gates was named as one of the people to leave behind. *grin* " Linus was named as the person in hardware to watch, while Young was named the person in operating system.
Time for a "ZDNet" category. (Score:1)
Jesse Bust (Score:2)
Saying that Linus is someone to watch takes zero effort or research. If he was really clued, he'd write about Rasmus Lerdorf and the folks who've been developing PHP. They're quietly redefining
server-side scripting, and will eventually blow ASP out of the water.
Red Hat (Score:1)
Norbert de Jonge
(hack@altavista.net)
my turn to be Berst (Score:2)
Hardware and OS choices misleading... (Score:3)
Given, Bob's done some interesting things towards making a business model based around open source, but I'm not sure if Operating Systems is the right category for this. I use RH, but I don't see IT as an Operating System - but then again, I may be overly pedantic.
And Linus is the Linux guy, but he isn't the Transmeta guy - he's likely the only person there that also has an OS named after him, but the chip isn't a one person show. Honestly, Jesse.
Why Linus? -> That's why! (Score:1)
You can safely assume that Linus wouldn't have accepted a random hardware development job if he couldn't use his previous experience.
polarized pundits (Score:4)
Conspiracy theory: Since we all know ZDNet is owned by MS anyway, BillG has ordered that they take a positive stance on Linux, so as to show that MS has plenty of competition.
Business Case Theory: With the billion-dollar market cap of Red Hat and VA Linux, they want advertising dollars, and they know both companies want more space in mainstream market publications (I mean, really, did you buy a VA Linux server because of the ad in Linux Journal? No, you already knkew who they were, but Joe Sixpack doesn't). The corollary is that the "Linux will be crushed" guys are doing it because if Win2k tanks, they won't be able to refocus their business (maybe).
Misanthrope Theory: People are morons.
is this the same jesse berst? (Score:1)
He left out the obvious (Score:1)
Re:Linux - is it for everyone? even a newbie like (Score:2)
I use Linux at home, and have ADSL. It is really quite simple. I have the external Cisco 675 DSL router hooked up to my 24 port switching hub and my Linux boxes hooked into that. For simple single machine hookups, you can run a crossover network cable directly between the DSL router and the computer and you don't need a hub. One of the Linux boxes has my DSL IP assigned to it, the others all use an internal IP. The firewall/proxy server machine is a wimpy Pentium 75 with 64M of RAM (used to be 32M) and a 4.3G hard drive (I use squid, a cacheing proxy server to speed up web browsing).
I know a number of people who use the @home cable modem service with Linux and have seen posts from people who use RoadRunner cable modems with Linux. I think their external cable modems hook up pretty similarly to the way the Cisco 675 does.
I like the lower cost of Linux compared even to 95/98. Compared to NT it is significantly lower in cost.
Most of the other software I need is either free or cheap for Linux. I have purchased a few other peices of software such as the commercial version of WordPerfect, but at under $100 retail, it is cheaper than Microsoft Word anyway.
Not only does Linux and the key software I use with it cost less, Linux is significantly more efficient with its use of hardware resources. NT would be nearly unusable in the configuration I have for what I use that P75 box for, let alone when it only had 32M in it.
I like the reliability and stability of Linux. I have my key Linux boxes on UPSes, and they just run and run and run. My experience with NT has been that it is better than 95/98 in stability, but still no match for Linux.
Basically Linux lets me do things at home that there is no way I could afford to do legally if I used Microsoft products. Even if I had a much larger computer budget I still wouldn't enjoy the reliability I do with Linux if I used Microsoft.
They left out the OBVIOUS choice (Score:2)
a cyberjuggernaut/politcally sound/hep cat like that is a definate ringer for this arena
yeah yeah moderate this down into oblivion
Re:Leave Bill Gates behind? (Score:1)
Once a corporation gets to be above a certain size, it has far more to lose than to gain by real change.
Microsoft, being the largest capitalized corporation in the world is clearly in that category. Over the next decade what are they going to do any differently that what they did over the last 5 years? They will be boring as hell.
Watching Microsoft is going to be like watching paint dry.
Re:Leave Bill Gates behind? (Score:1)
Uh... I think there are bigger companies in the US, not mentioning the rest of the world. The name IBM or Bayer just comes to mind...
Uh yourself. Microsoft is the largest capitalized corporation in the world. Capitalization = stock prices times number of outstanding shares. Second is GE. IBM or General Motors is probably #3.
If you talk about sales or number of employees or some other measure I am sure you will come up with a different ranking.
if the same growth is going to take place in the next 5 years mr. BillG is going to buy the US.
Not very likely. Over the last two years Microsoft's growth has really slowed. If you extrapolate trends (dangerous) they will probably lose their lead quite soon to companies like Cisco and Qualcomm.
Just this year Qualcomm has gone from 3% of the value of Microsoft to 60%. Some analysts have already predicted another doubling of Qualcomm stock which would cause it to surpass Microsoft.
Re:You're obviously confusing me with . . (Score:1)
I don't think anyone takes him (or ZDNet) seriously anymore, except people like my dad who just don't know.
Dear Mr. Berst (Score:1)
.. sliced bread!
no list (Score:1)
stop feeling the urge to make top lists out of
everything its too trite !?$?&?7856&*?5(?879?&*(
Visibility (Score:1)
Jesse Berst isn't much deeper into the industry than the average PC World reader. And he doesn't cater to people who are in much deeper than the average PC World reader. So it's a pretty easy conclusion to make that he's just seeing the people that appear in front of the camera.
From one extreme to the other... (Score:3)
Not that I'm a fan or anything. Just that I have a feeling that " a cornered animal fights fiercest" (or something along those lines).
Also, Mr. Berst's reason for counting out Microsoft may not be valid either. He states that the new start-ups may not be talking about M$. However, he doesn't state that they're talking about the competition either.
A lot of these new net players may, whether you like or not, simply consider M$ a given in the situation, which is why they don't stand out. M$ has made gains in getting a large amount of the web to run off their products (I don't know about you, but I;m seeing more and more
No M$ love here, but if we're going to succeed, we have to remember the wise words of Gold Leader "Stay on target. Stay on target."
Linux maybe just right for you if... (Score:2)
Cable modems work really well under Linux. Most just use an enternet connection from the cable box to a 10Mb ethernet card. Linux handles most ethernet cards, including popular cards from 3Com and Intel.
I am not sure about ADSL...I do not know how they set it up in homes. Business DSL usually uses a DSL router and then ethernet to the computers. Perhaps home DSL works like a cable modem. If so the the answer is yes, Linux supports ADSL.
Everyday Linux is getting easier to use. There are lots of applications with some of your Windows favorites ported and looking very similar. Windows friends include Netscape Communicator, RealPlayer, WorkPerfect, and WinAmp (renamed x11amp in the Linux world). There various emulation applications for applications that have not been ported. At some point all Windows applications will run under Linux. You have all the things you are used to in Windows: Icons, Start Menus, TaskBars, and lots applications. The big difference for Linux is that most of the applications are free.
Another Linux offers far and above any other OS is choice and control. Everything can be custimize. This is why Linux is so hard to explain: it is many different things to many different people. This may make it confusing at first but I really appreciate being able to tweak things just the way I like it. It makes me more productive and a happier computer user.
There are a few areas where Linux does lag behind:
With out a companies control, most applications do not "talk" to each other. Applications can look and feel very different from one another. This is being slowly resolved but the issue still remains.
Adding devices to Linux, especially without reinstalling can be a pain. On the upside, there is lots of help on the net and this is also getting better. Driver support is expanding and many companies are starting to support Linux.
If gaming is the main thing you use your computer for then Linux may not be for you. It still lags behind Windows and Mac for availability. We do have Doom and Quake, though! This is also an area that is starting to get better.
That's about it. Also, remember that there ways to set up Linux so that you do not have to give up Win9x/NT yet. Both sides support multiple boot paths allowing you to have several operating systems installed at once. There is even software for running them at the same time! Good luck!
Pundits == parasites? Yes sir! (Score:2)
I don't need predictions, I just want news. That's all. No editorials, no predictions, no personal ego inflated rants.
Joe Friday said it best:
"Just the facts!"
Re:Linux - is it for everyone? even a newbie like (Score:2)
Go to Linux Newbie [linuxnewbie.org] for info.
Linux is like a multi-user, multi-tasking, DOS on steroids. You need a GUI to sit on top of it if you want a windowing environment much the way win3.1/win95/win98 sit on top of DOS.
Try MandrakeLinux [linux-mandrake.com] first because it is the most beginner friendly. Hope this helps and good luck.
-pos
The truth is more important than the facts.
Re:Leave Bill Gates behind? (Score:1)
Uh... I think there are bigger companies in the US, not mentioning the rest of the world. The name IBM or Bayer just comes to mind...
Microsoft is the biggest software company, but that doesn't make them automatically the largest corp ever.
Over the next decade what are they going to do any differently that what they did over the last 5 years? They will be boring as hell. Watching Microsoft is going to be like watching paint dry.
Really? Well, if I was Bill, I surely will undersign this statement. Look at MS stock price 5 years ago and look at it now. If the same growth is going to take place in the next 5 years, mr. BillG is going to buy the US.
not really... (Score:1)
Succeess is done behind the scene.
Those out in the spot light are celebraties. And pretty much it...
Berst is so intuitive... (Score:1)
JB (Score:2)
Why are we paying attention to Berst? (Score:2)
I was pretty shocked to see Slashdot actually regarding something that crawled out of Jesse Berst's mouth as semi-reliable. Come on! It's Jesse Berst! For those of you who want to know why we should all detest this low-life, here's few good reasons:
1. Jesse is completely inconsistent. To say that he speaks with a forked tongue is to resist the temptation to use the description "multipartite".
2. Jesse's information is suspect, and that's on his better days. This year he has:
....and all this in a matter of weeks. He must have a billion dissenting voices in his head!
* Predicted the downfall of Mozilla and the death of Internet Explorer.
* Predicted the rise of Mozilla and the downfall of Internet Explorer.
* Predicted the acceptance of Linux.
* Predicted the rejection of Linux.
* Predicted the slow-and-steady growth of Linux.
* Predicted the Y2K problems as catastrophic.
* Predicted that there would be no Y2K trouble.
3. Jesse stoops to the lowest of the low tactics that tabloids hesitate to use. He does not mind taking anything out of context, or smearing anyone and anything with unfounded claims. For some examples of this, just look at latest piece on Mozilla, then look at the Mozillazine response to see that just about every single one of his claims are baseless!
Please, if you're going to post anything else that Jesse writes, post it under "It's Funny. Laugh."
-=Yusuf=-Re:From one extreme to the other... (Score:3)
Besides the good reasons you mentioned, the other reason to keep an eye on Microsoft is their huge investments in core technologies that are going to continue to be hot throughout the next decade: $1B investment in AT&T that will result in Microsoft software in AT&T cable set top boxes, WirelessKnowledge, a joint venture with Qualcomm (yes, the one with the meteoric stock increase) that will bring email to cell phone users via Microsoft back-end servers, and the list goes on and on. These investments are one of the major reasons that analysts and fund managers love Microsoft stock: Microsoft doesn't just rely on one market, like most of the startups in Jesse's world.
You're obviously confusing me with . . (Score:2)
_________________________
Re:JB (Score:1)
Re:JB (Score:2)
Congratulations! You have now achieved the exact same maturity level as the average reader of slashdot - which happens to be the same as that of your 4-year-old cousin.
I eagerly anticipate the day when you guys grow up.
Burst, Jesse Berst! (Score:2)
Jess has also said that StarOffice wouldn't succeed simply because no one has successfully beaten Microsoft at Bill's own game. Now, that's insight into how industries ought to conduct themselves! ... "No one's done this before, so as an ambitious entrepeneur, I realize I should do something else instead." Right, Jesse!
Unfortunately, Jesse Berst is hardly insightful even for the pundits, and has never impressed any honestly tech-savvy individual.
Remember, you can't spell "progress" without "twit"!
Losers -- US... (Score:3)
WORLD LEADER: BILL CLINTON, THE UNITED STATES
Sad but true. Under his watch, U.S. companies have turned from entrepreneurs to spoiled children. While we bicker about wireless standards and broadband access and revel in our stock options, nations like China and Finland will usurp our lead
I have to begin to agree with the fact that our technology sector is going to lose it if we do not get proper regulation from people who KNOW what's going on. You can't have 80 year old men regulate something they don't know what their talking about. The same goes for anything, you can't let idiots control the economy if they don't understand economics. I think that the tech industry is going to be spun into a ditch if we aren't allowed more freedom.
- Mike Roberto
-- roberto@apk.net
--- AOL IM: MicroBerto
The /. Effect Once Again (Score:1)
Re:They left out the OBVIOUS choices (Score:1)
Re:Why Linus? (Score:1)
friggin' idiot. Try reading his Berst Alert on
ZDNet.
Leave Bill Gates behind? (Score:1)
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that everyone should like MS because they're rich. I'm just saying, David didn't beat Goliath simply by telling him that he had a better way, closing his eyes, and pretending Goliath wasn't there.
Huge yawn. (Score:2)
Berst is a dork, but that wouldn't be so bad of itself. There are a lot of these industry pundits that are huge dorks, leftovers from a time -- early 80's -- where "microcomputers" were new, no one knew where they were going, and publishers needed to find "experts", really just personalities with a technical bent, whose names they could tack onto columns and market to a business readership hungry to tune into, well, experts. "Oh yeah!? Well, John Dvorak says blah, blah, blah ..."
What makes Jesse Berst worse than the dork company he keeps is the fact that he's a boring dork. There's very little he uncovers that's really new or interesting, and his "insights" are rarely anything more than the latest marketing headlines culled from the latest press releases from the latest hype machines, which is why he is now saying watch Torvalds.
And now he's saying leave Gates behind. Well, folks, don't get me wrong, I'm not a Microsoft fan, though I'm forced to use it, I proselytize Linux as much as anyone, and I have generated my own geekcode, but if I had a dime every time some industry trend dipwad dork told his/her readership to count Gates out because they only perceived obstacles that they, with their characteristically limited vision -- which is why they're "trend watchers" and not highly paid marketing or financial analysts -- would be troubled by, then I'd have way enough cash to be able to leave my webmaster job and get a big house in La Jolla and have lots of oiled-up sex with ex-Penthouse models.
Ultimately, my advice, for what it's worth:
$Berst->packForget();
It's funny you mention this ... (Score:5)
"Betting $5 on a 100-to-1 underdog can be fun. Betting $50,000 would be foolish. Yet some PC users are making similarly outrageous wagers on Linux, the underdog in the operating-system wars."
Exactly _how many_ Jesse Bersts are out there?
here's the link... [mercurycenter.com]
He's right about the US (Score:1)
Bill Gates doesn't matter? (Score:1)
You may be thinking that the anti-trust hearing will stop that. It won't. AT&T was allowed to enter more markets after their anti-trust trial. If the DOJ does anything to MS they will probably give them a reward to go with their punishment.
They big question (according to me) is how far they will fall before they rise again. We've seen it with IBM, we'll see it with MS. $30 Billion in cash doesn't just vanish.
Oh, look, Apple-bashing. (Score:3)
Re:The Way of Torvalds (Score:2)
Does it mean that Torvalds' working in Transmeta has undermined his position is Operating Systems and he is now an innovative hardware guy?
The answer to both questions is no primarily because Jesse Berst does not have a clue about what he is talking about.
Elaboration
The operating system is named after Linus; he controls the builds, owns the Linux trademark and decides what goes into the kernel...Bob Young runs a company that sells a pretty user friendly distro and has made a good name for themselves in the corporate world. Now you tell me who deserves to be the OS man of the millenium.
hint: his initials aren't B.Y.
Your second question implies that you haven't been reading the trades or Slashdot and hearing Linus's name mentioned a hundred times with regards to Linux with an after-thought mention that he now works for the super secretive startup Transmeta. This implies to me that to everyone else except Jesse Berst, Linus is the OS guy who created the newest competitor to MSFT's Windows a couple of years ago because he couldn't afford a flavor of Unix.
PS: Jesse Berst is an idiot to say that simply because the startups he has talked to do not mention MSFT in conversations with him, the World's biggest and most valuable computer company is down and out. Microsoft has way too much market
wha?! (Score:1)
Sounds like a stir up in Spring^H^H^H^H^H^H Redmond.
Re:www.microsoft.com is down... (Score:1)
The Way of Torvalds (Score:1)
Something that I found interesting was that Torvalds was hardware and Young was Operating Systems.
What does this mean?
Does it mean that Linux has moved from the geek community represented by Torvalds, to the corporate community represented by Young?
Does it mean that Torvalds' working in Transmeta has undermined his position is Operating Systems and he is now an innovative hardware guy?
It's right about Bill Gates though
Why Linus? (Score:4)
signature smigmature
Moderate this one up! (Score:1)
Re:Oh, look, Apple-bashing. (Score:2)
---
In BusinessLand a businessman survives (Score:1)
Even it comes from Berst and the words smell like poop, it's worth a thought IF what he says is true and why/why not.
wrong! they are written by staffers! (Score:1)