Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Linux's progress is slow
The lack of monetary incentive keeps Linux moving at a crawl. People build software for Windows because they know they will make money. Linux has made great progress in its lifetime, but until it finds a way to attract a greater audience, software developers will continue to look elsewhere. A sense of community is not enough of an incentive to justify the time required to write truly impressive software. Unless Linux makes some changes toward reaching a more general audience, they will not attract enough dedicated developers to really make an impact on society.
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I would disagree, Linux' impact on society has been enormous! The majority of websites are hosted on Linux. Although the average Joe might not know that, it is almost certain they have been affected by it.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, developing open source software is probably one of the quickest ways to get ahead in this industry. Having become acquainted with the hiring process of quite a few companies, I have seen how many of them love candidates that have contributed to, or maintain, open source projects. It is a showcase of your abilities both technical and social to interact and work well with others, and often indicates a passion for what you do.
ReplyDeleteAlso, open source is big businesses. The thing a lot of people unacquainted with open source don't realize is that there is big money in successful open source projects. By creating an ecosystem of engaged developers, you lower your cost to enter a market, are able to undercut existing solutions, and make money through support or custom/premium solutions. Mongodb, Opscode, Cloudera, and a thousand more companies business models revolve around open source projects.
In other words, like it or not, Linux and the open source movement are here to stay and are often times more innovative than their competitors.
Addison has some good points. In the end Linux lets you get dirty where other systems won't let you, and that includes a couple of pros and cons.
ReplyDeleteSorry, apparently I was unclear... I am not trying to make a statement about open source, I'm making a statement about getting Linux on everyone's desktop computer.
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