Re: The Scotts Valley Operation?

• Previous message: Michiel Buddingh: "Re: Rob Enderle...."
• In reply to: Jeff Liebermann: "Re: The Scotts Valley Operation?"
• Next in thread: Joe Dunning: "Re: The Scotts Valley Operation?"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

Date: 6 Sep 2004 02:47:58 -0700

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> On 5 Sep 2004 15:57:02 -0700, "Tony Lawrence" <pcunix@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> >
> >> Instead, Caldera tried to turn paying SCO Unix customers into
> >> non-paying Linux customers. I kept asking the same question: "How
am
> >> I suppose to make money with Linux"? and getting no intelligible
> >> answers. A short conversation with Ransom Love at one of the SCO
> >> Forums convinced me that we had moved from the frying pan to the
> >fire.
>
> >Well, I think they missed a great opportunity. I've spelled it out
in
> >longer form at http://aplawrence.com/Blog/B1083.html but in short
SCO
> >should have used open source to build apps that would give people a
> >reason to use their OS. It's my opinion that having a proprietary
OS
> >could actually give you an advantage over open source if you exploit
it
> >correctly - like Eastern Martial Arts, use your opponents own
strength
> >against them.
>
> Methinks you've misread my comments. I was asking how *I* am suppose
> to make money with Linux, not how SCO is suppose to make money with
> Linux. The answer to SCO's problem was simple. Sell a mixture of
> free and proprietary packages. Concentrate on integration issues,
> which methinks are still the biggest Linux headache[1]. Target
> specific applications markets and emphasize reliability and testing,
> which customers are always willing to pay for. After all, SCO's
> expertise was in feature conglomeration, testing, and integration.

Which is exactly what I suggested: integration.
>
> However, that wasn't going to happen because the obvious free part of
> the puzzle was the operating system and SCO had huge investments in
> ODT and Open Unix. In other words, SCO would have had to sell
> applications and services built on Linux and literally abandoned
their
> two Unix OS's. That wasn't going to happen.

No, you missed my point: integrate ON OSR5.

>
> However, my question was how *I* was going to make money with Linux.
> Traditional consulting is the obvious way, where I perform heroic
> feats of system integration and bludgeon applications into a useable
> form. That works but one problem; I don't need SCO for that. I can
> do that with pure open source packages. Another plan would be to
> write a Linux application and support it. Yeah, I can do that but
> again, I don't need SCO unless I wanted to build it on OSR5 and Open
> Unix.

Which is what SCO needed to do: bundle and modify Open Source apps on
OSR5.

Of course the presumption is that you come up with something better
than what Joe Random could do on Linux. If you can't, you fail.

>
> Perhaps the correct question should be:
> "How can SCO make me rich"?
>
> Your blog article mentioned:
> http://www.sys-con.com/java/46131.cfm
> as an example of how to make money with Linux. I find the article to
> be little better than useless philosophical speculation on the future
> of Sun's policy of the week toward open source Java desktop. I don't
> make money with a philosophy or "editorial outlook". Quoting:
> "You don't buy the software from Sun - instead you subscribe
> to the editorial outlook."
> Bleh. Please find a more appropriate article.

I think you missed the point of that also. If Sun or SCO started
porting Open Source apps and integrating well into smooth running
systems where you could always depend upon them, that's "editorial
outlook" - something you will pay for as an end user or a systems
reseller. It's what RedHat does, but companies like SCO or Sun (and
even Microsoft) have an opportunity to do it better, and still
effectively prevent copying.

>
> [1] For this week, the latest Skype beta for Linux arrived with
> Chinese as the default language. KDE 3.3 broke my sound drivers in
> Suse 9.1. QA and regression testing? Whazzat?

I have mixed feelings about Skype. On the one hand, it's great because
it is free. On the other hand, all the router companies and/or AOL are
surely going to take their market away.

--
Tony Lawrence

• Previous message: Michiel Buddingh: "Re: Rob Enderle...."
• In reply to: Jeff Liebermann: "Re: The Scotts Valley Operation?"
• Next in thread: Joe Dunning: "Re: The Scotts Valley Operation?"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]