LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Dale Long <dalel@picknowl.com.au>
  To  : LinuxSA <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2003 01:24:09 +1030

Re: We got mentioned in parliament

davidn@rebel.net.au wrote:

>Francesco Peeters <Francesco@Fampeeters.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>Also the 'killing innovation' is a BS argument, as the best ideas are 
>>often created by people that are playing with a thought and then simply 
>>start coding to see if it can be done.
>>    
>>
>
>What true innovations have come out of open source in the past five years?
>  
>
I would say that the overall open development method and cross 
pollination of ideas would be one of the main 'innovations'.

While I don't intend to avoid your question, what innovations have come 
out of closed source in the past five years?

I would say that most developments are so incremental in general (for 
both open and closed source) , that no one single development stands out.

Would it be true that once a closed source lock in for the consumer is 
in place, that there would be no need for a closed source developer to 
innovate? My guess would be that focus in a shareholder driven society 
would be such that a company would decide it would not innovate if it 
did not need to in order to stay ahead in the money game.

It seems that innovation comes about when there is a hope of making more 
money and there is a target to reach. Once a certain point is reached 
there is no need. On the other side of things, there is a lack of 
innovation when there is no hope of making money (or obtaining status or 
recognition that help make money later on).

All the small innovator companies create their new software with goal of 
"going somewhere", only to be reaped by large organizations that know 
how to exploit business models and package the obtained (assimilated) 
components into the large organization's collective.

All of this is in addition to the topic of Australia staying self reliant.

---
Dale.

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