Desktop Relevance

[Greg Rundlett (freephile)]

On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 2:03 PM, Jarod Wilson <jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Thursday 26 March 2009 11:50:28 Greg Rundlett wrote:
>> On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 11:17 AM, Jarod Wilson <jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> > On Thursday 26 March 2009 10:47:32 Dan Ritter wrote:
>> >> On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 10:14:10AM -0400, Jerry Feldman wrote:
>> >> >
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> > Bottom line is that a publicly traded company has to make money, and the
>> > easiest way to make money on Linux is in the data center. Making money
>> > on the desktop is HARD. Red Hat very much likes to see more Linux on the
>> > desktop, but it simply doesn't make financial sense to try to sell and
>> > support Linux on the desktop. You'd have to build up market share slowly
>> > over time, and until you reach critical mass, which may well be never,
>> > you aren't going to actually make any money. Investors don't take kindly
>> > to things like that, its jut cold hard business facts.
>>
>> The idea that business is all about making the most amount of money
>> for the least amount of effort is what is wrong with America.   This
>> is one of the things that has to change.  I don't know how, except to
>> imagine that greater transparency could lead to greater accountability
>> in an ethical sense. Businesses need to be more like people - honest,
>> fair, co-operative, humble.  This is way off-topic perhaps.  Or, it is
>> exactly why so many people are interested in Technology Freedom (FOSS)
>> -- because it is honest, fair, co-operative and humble.
>
> I'm assuming you're talking about businesses in general, and not Red Hat
> in particular, as I find Red Hat to be the most honest, fair, co-operative
> and humble company I've ever worked for, and does open source the Right
> Way, actively participating in upstream communities, open-sourcing just
> about everything (yay, RHN Satellite finally on the list, just that ugly
> dep on an Oracle DB to deal with...), etc.

I agree.  I was speaking in the general (and certainly not targeting
your words as your personal stance either).

-- 
Greg Rundlett
Web Developer - Initiative in Innovative Computing
http://iic.harvard.edu
camb 617-384-5872
nbpt 978-225-8302
m. 978-764-4424
-skype/aim/irc/twitter freephile
http://profiles.aim.com/freephile