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AndrewWatt2000@a... writes: > "At the risk of over-generalising the fundamental business model of > open source software is Microsoft-paranoia and Microsoft-phobia by > competitor companies. Of course there are enthusiasts who donate > time but isn't at least part of the motivation for some of those > developers the same Microsoft-phobia and Microsoft-paranoia? Try to > imagine how limited open source software today might be without the > kick start donations and ongoing funding from the corporate > interests intent on spoiling Microsoft. If hatred and fear of > Microsoft were not so widespread there might be virtually no open > source software!" While the term "Open Source" is recent, the community around it has been in existence for a long time -- it spun off when AT&T closed off the Unix sources. If hatred and fear were a driving force, then it was hatred and fear of AT&T, IBM, and Sun that drove most free-software projects. Back before the early 1990s, I don't remember much anti-Microsoft hostility at all -- hard-core techies thought DOS was pretty pathetic, but no one considered Microsoft a threat, and a lot of people actually admired them for being a little company (originally) that got the better of Big Blue. We initially adopted Linux as a free alternative to Minix, which was a cheap alternative to Xenix for desktop computers. Few people at the beginning of the 1990s were seriously suggesting that Linux should compete with Windows, OS2, or MacOS -- those were GUI junk for people who didn't know how to use a shell. While there are now a few higher-profile OSS projects going head-to-head with Microsoft -- Gnome, KDE, Mozilla, OpenOffice, Abiword, and Gnumeric come immediately to mind -- the vast majority of projects are still traditional, Unix-flavoured non-GUI utilities (command-line or server-side). Sometimes, as in the case of HTTP servers, Microsoft is the Johnny-come-lately playing catch-up, not the OSS community. All the best, David -- David Megginson, david@m..., http://www.megginson.com/
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