The New Linux Economy
From: Travis 'Bailo' Bickel (jabailo_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 02/24/04
- Next message: Bar Elimelech: "encode string in Windows service"
- Previous message: David Lindgren: "How to determine if the system clock has been set back in time"
- Next in thread: John Timney \(Microsoft MVP\): "Re: The New Linux Economy"
- Reply: John Timney \(Microsoft MVP\): "Re: The New Linux Economy"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 08:06:43 GMT
Lately, I have been having a bear of a time trying to acquire a Linux driver
for my S3/ProSavage chipset -- but that quest is now almost at an end as I
have located a noble band of people who are pushing the envelop with S3 and
Savage chipset drivers!
Though my quest might sound like food for trolls to mock Linux -- hear me
out. I think I have discovered part of the message of the new Linux
economy. Many of us have criticized the Microsoft Monolith. The one size
fits all Model T approach. What we criticize even more is how that model
no longer works. Even with a restricted homogeneous architecture, there
are still magnificent flaws in security, useability, functionality, pace of
change, meeting customer demand and so on...
What my quest told me is that even when a project seems obscure or even
impossible -- the new Linux economy is so diverse, that there are people
working on even the most detailed problems. My driver knowledge took me
to the motherboard manufacturer, the chipset vendor, the OEM chipset
integrator, user groups, OSS dev groups, mailing lists, newsgroups and so
on. But each part of this web of knowledge and software added a little bit
to the puzzle. What is more, as specific as my request was, there was
information, and, for others with similar, specific requests, there were
people meeting the need as well.
Here's the thing. The price of hardware has dropped tremendously. I am a
beneficiary of that as my new Athlon 2400 for under $300 is a dream
machine! Ok, so with DVD drive and some extras -- I sprung for a nice
logitech mouse, keyboard and gamepad, and went for the old fashioned 17
CRT, it's still under $600. Of course, using Suse, my OS, applications
and so on are free. Ok. So you know what. With all those bargains, if
someone said to me: yeah, you can have a 3D driver for your Suse machine,
but it'll cost ya...um...say $50. Say even $75. You know what? I would
easily pay that group the money. In fact, I would *want* to pay them the
money and hope that others would as well.
Inside of /licensing/ monolithic, broken and stiff Micrsoft code that was
writen for 386 machines from a decade ago, and lining the stomachs and
pockets of Steve Balmer, Bill Gates and his egregious so-called
*foundation*, I would rather the money go to the people in the software
community who are actually /adding value/.
-- Kent Crazy B.V.
- Next message: Bar Elimelech: "encode string in Windows service"
- Previous message: David Lindgren: "How to determine if the system clock has been set back in time"
- Next in thread: John Timney \(Microsoft MVP\): "Re: The New Linux Economy"
- Reply: John Timney \(Microsoft MVP\): "Re: The New Linux Economy"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Relevant Pages
|
