US sales of computers carrying Microsoft's new operating system Vista soared in the week after it was launched, defying the expectations of analysts who gave Vista lackluster reviews. Personal computer sales for the week following Vista's debut to succeed Microsoft's Windows XP in January were 67 percent higher than those in the same week in 2006, and nearly triple those of the preceding week, according to Current Analysis.
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Member since:2005-07-06
I would say that you're incorrect about OpenSolaris, however; OpenSolaris is going to take time because not all parts can be opensourced, they need to be replaced gradually as copyright encombered code is replaced with clean room implementations.
With that being said, what is holding it back is a lack of leadership and vision by Sun - like I said, they have the potential there, but they don't take advantage of it; its like watching a gifted child who turns to drugs and alcohol rather than using those abilities to makeselves successful later on in life.
I just *hope* that *maybe* the CEO of Sun knows something we all don't know about GPL3, OpenSolaris, and whats happening behind closed door, because so far, the development of OpenSolaris is almost dead given that none of the big ticket items in regards to bugs aren't even being addressed.
Member since:
2005-07-08
By the time software take advantage of those features where will Linux be?
Which will happen first: Will corporate IT mold itself around Vista, or will Linux mold itself around corporate IT? That's pretty much the crux of the issue.
Microsoft is making advances that look linear. Linux development looks more exponential. Everybody wants to stand in front of an exponential curve and point at it. You get promoted for doing that.
But more specifically, certain shifts happened during the Vista development cycle. IT is now conscious of the MS lock-in, and they will try to avoid it as best they can. That will limit the uptake of Vista APIs. This leads me to the next point, which is that MS no longer drives standards. While they were away toiling with the complexities of the Windows codebase, Linux began to dictate the IT agenda. It used to be that if you didn't have an IT strategy concerning Linux, you better start thinking about one. Now, if you don't have a Linux strategy, you must not be in the IT business.
RANT WARNING!
The executives who really dictate IT strategy talk about Linux in terms of eventualities. Linux isn't a competitor to Windows, it's the eventual replacement. Linux isn't a competitor to AIX, it's the eventual replacement. By the time Linux reaches competitiveness, it's already a replacement. When? Nobody knows. But anyone at the helm of the IT industry who isn't short-sighted (i.e. not Sun) envisions a future consisting of Linux and not much else. Hey, if HP's customers want Solaris on x86, give them Solaris. But the tattered remains of a once great company still knows more about IT than Sun, and that will never change.
Flamebait? Show me a strategy for competing head-to-head with Linux. The key is that Linux is not your usual disruptive technology that can be addressed with the usual embrace and extend tactics. That's OpenSolaris in a nutshell. Linux is the result of a major social phenomenon. There are many thousands of very smart people around the world who didn't go to elite schools and didn't get jobs at the major software vendors. They decided to cooperate and show that they can make better software, and the rest is history. Do you honestly imagine that Sun can hijack the Linux community at this stage in the game, after all of the inroads made and heads turned? I'm sorry, Mr. Schwartz, but the ship has sailed. Linux has become what UNIX should have been, and it's all eventualities from here on forward. The future of IT belongs to each and every one of us.