[Am-info] BUGGY WHIPS FOR INDIA

[Fred A. Miller]

Interesting perspective....I'm about to "buy into" it.

Fred

BUGGY WHIPS FOR INDIA

Posted November 22, 2002 01:01 PM  Pacific Time


OCCASIONALLY, I hear people say about open source,
"Hey, it's just software." But from a market
perspective, open source is far more than software --
it is the force that is recreating the software market.

The combination of an operating system, e-mail client,
Web browser, and office software has proven to be
powerful in the current market. So powerful, in fact,
that the combination has led many to believe that
Microsoft has a lock on the business desktop market.
Even the court found Microsoft to have a monopoly in
this area.

But that was the old software market. In the new
software market, these pieces don't enable a monopoly,
but a choice. Using open standards and open source,
these components can be mixed and matched, giving the
user or IT department maximum flexibility and control
at minimum cost. That's a far cry from giving the
software provider maximum power.

In the United States, the old software market has the
advantage of being entrenched in business management.
But that is not the case in other nations.

Take, for example, India, which has been a hotbed of
growth in the computer industry for the past decade.
It is no secret that many American companies staff
project teams with highly talented but economically
priced Indian consultants. The growth of the
programming industry is yielding positive effects on
India's economy.

I remember reading in reports not long ago that Indian
computer students were rapidly learning Windows to
become competitive in the market. But recently, I have
been reading about open source's massive growth in
India. It seems that many in the Indian computer
industry, educational system, and government now
believe that the new software market model can benefit
their nation far more than the old model.

Lo and behold, the beneficiaries of the old market are
not going away quietly. Recently, Microsoft announced
a $400 million investment in India's computer
education system. Coincidentally, I'm sure, Bill Gates
himself is donating $100 million to fight the spread
of AIDS in India.

So, when the old market loses to the new market's value
proposition, purveyors of the old market will try to
perpetuate it with money. In this case, lots of money.
The ink isn't even dry on the government's settlement
with Microsoft, and already the company is attempting
to "invest" its way into a growing country.

Will it succeed? Well, would the arrival of the
automobile have been averted if some rich buggy whip
manufacturer taught classes in whipping technique?
Even organized lessons in yelling "Get a horse!" could
not have stopped the arrival of the automotive age. It
might have delayed things a bit, but it would not have
stopped the auto.

No, spreading around lots of cash won't prevent the
inevitable. The realities of the open-source market
will not be denied. Not even for $500 million.

Russell Pavlicek is an independent open-source
consultant. Contact him at
pavlicek@linuxprofessionalsolutions.com. Log on to his
forum at www.infoworld.com/os.

-- 
Fred A. Miller
Systems Administrator
Cornell Univ. Press Services
fm@cupserv.org, www.cupserv.org