Novell,MS and Xen

[Bruce Dawson]

Tom Buskey wrote:
> On 11/10/06, Bruce Dawson <jbd at codemeta.com> wrote:
>>
>> It will shortly become too expensive for individuals to develop software
>> for commercial use. Looks like us programmers will go the way of the Ham
>> radio operator and backyard mechanic. There will be no more Wilbur and
>> Orville Wrights in this industry if Microsoft is successful with its
>> Novell "acquisition".
> 
> Actually, Microsoft is acting exactly like Wilbur and Orville Wright.
> They focused on patent litigation to try to keep others out of the
> airplane business.  Glenn Curtis and others focused on the product.
> 
> You can buy a Curtis or Beechcraft or Cessna but you can't buy a
> Wright brand plane today.  One can hope history repeats itself.

Thanks for the history [re-]lesson. I had completely forgotten that
Wilbur and Orville were very secretive and anal about their invention.
(Actually, I think one was more secretive than the other, but the
brothers honored each other.)

But your observation is correct, their "protectiveness" was greater than
their business management skills, and they lost the war to their
competition. (But won many battles which, with hindsight, only served to
 make their competition stronger.)

Let's hope the software industry (and the GPL) is made stronger by this
fight. Now we just have to be aware of what those congress critters are
passing for laws.

--Bruce