More Knowledge@Wharton: “Following the model that made Microsoft’s Windows so successful, Microsoft licensed PlaysForSure to multiple hardware vendors of digital music players. ‘We thought that was a brilliant strategy — [develop] an open ecosystem, get a lot of people [to support it].’ What happened? As Ballmer puts it, ‘In this particular case, the whole was not bigger than the sum of the parts.'”
As I said the other day, an ecosystem is never the sum of its parts—it’s either a whole lot more or a whole lot less. Microsoft was decidedly on the wrong side of the equation this time. Yes, Microsoft did what it had to do to compete effectively. Question is, will this make it harder for Microsoft to build the next ecosystem? And did the tactics Microsoft used to benefit from the last one play a role in the outcome this time?
(Via Mary Jo Foley.)
Ian,
why don’t you come out clean, and state that you disagree with the economics of open-source, because it does not pay, and thus you are reconsidering conventional for-profit enterprises? Your posts would finally make sense, and read for what they are, that is, marketing for Microsoft and Google. There is nothing wrong with it, but for fairness sake the reader must know that, at this time, you are biased in their favour.
Uh.. -ian
As a long-time Debian user and open source advocate, I believe Ian is making the best attempt possible at being fair to everyone. It is impossible to deny that Microsoft, Google and other vendors have done some great things over the years.
It’s sad that MS, in order to satisfy Joe Blow, has to keep backwards compatibility for apps over a decade old, because the developers were retards and hard-coded in buggy behaviour.
Not only that, but there are significant lessons to be learned here, if you take the time to study and understand what others are doing. In general, I’ve found that plugging your ears and declaring the rest of the world to be idiots isn’t quite as effective. -ian
Lawrence,
Ian is being less than fair, in my opinion. Being biased in favour of capitalist Microsoft and Google appears to be a counterbalance against the bias of others in favour of communist open-source. I am afraid the underlying politics divides the two groups sharply, and Ian appears to have his thoughts focused on profit. Again, there is nothing wrong with it, provided one make it clear upfront. By being silent on it, on the other hand, raises questions. Does Ian have the Ubuntu/RedHat/Suse envy? Is Ian on an intestine battle between his need for profit and Debian’s unwillingness to step from left to right in the survival of the fittest in a capitalist world? Is Ian having a moral dilemma, between the pleasure of the mind and the pain of the wallet? (Replace “Ian” with , as the problem is shared by many…)
Has it occurred to you that I might have always been a capitalist (see, e.g., here, here, here, …) , that there’s nothing more capitalist than open source, and that that’s why I’m so supportive of it? -ian
I am indeed puzzled about it. I mean, American capitalists that give away their hard work for free under the “open-source” umbrella, and Chinese communists that make a lot of money with a dry forehead. In the perfect Orwellian nightmare (thank you Bush), America is more communist than China, ad China is more capitalist than America. And no wonder people are crossing their eyes.
(A comment on “Science tries to explain the world, and it begins by making guesses.” No; it begins by collecting facts. Guesses come when you first try to find the patterns.)