[Info-vax] OT: Elephants Can't Dance

[Christopher]

On Mar 13, 9:22 am, billg... at cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) wrote:
> In article <548cd0e9-8eb2-48d7-82b1-3be6d1605... at t7g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>,
>         Christopher <nadiasver... at gmail.com> writes:
>
>
>
> > On Mar 11, 8:53 am, billg... at cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) wrote:
> >> In article <49b71a37$0$90263$14726... at news.sunsite.dk>,
> >>         Arne Vajhøj <a... at vajhoej.dk> writes:
>
> >> > Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> >> >> In article <49b5d07b$0$90267$14726... at news.sunsite.dk>,
> >> >>        Arne Vajhøj <a... at vajhoej.dk> writes:
> >> >>>                                     - there are plenty
> >> >>> of open source operating systems out there,    
>
> >> >> Name one serious OS that is open source that is not just another flavor
> >> >> of Unix.
>
> >> > I can not think of any.
> > Define "serious" ?  I would call Syllable and ReactOS serious.  Haiku
> > also.  Young, but all still serious.
>
> Equivalent in function and use to things like VMS, zOS, OS-2200.  Used
> for real work and not just something three guys play with in their mom's
> basement.  Mentioned in real IT trade rags (oops, that elimnates VMS :-).
> I can honestly say that I have never heard of any of the one's you
> mentioned.  A quick show of hands, how many people here had actually
> heard of any of these before this mention?

Haiku is a re-creation of BeOS, an excellent desktop OS.  It is far,
far more than something 3 people play with in their basement.
Syllable is sort of a cousin to Haiku in that they share some of code,
but have different goals.  Also, a significant effort.  Syllable also
has a "server" version.

ReactOS is an open source re-implementation of Windows.  It shares
significant code with the Linux windows emulator WINE.

AROS is probably the most complete, absolutely alternative open source
OS.  It is a re-implementation of the Amiga OS.

They are mentioned from time to time in "trade" journals that talk
about such things.  None of them (except perhaps AROS) are really
production ready, but neither was Linux until some companies started
building their business around it.

There is nothing wrong with Open Source, and, frankly, few enterprise
operating systems really benefit from being closed source.  Windows
and OS X being the notable examples, but that's because they *are* the
product.  You don't usually sell support contracts for a consumer OS.
I think it's silly that HP-UX, AIX, OS/400 and OpenVMS are closed
source.  The vast majority of revenue from those kinds of products
don't come from the initial sale.  It is support contracts that
generate the real revenue.

You could argue that opening the source gives other businesses the
opportunity to take revenue away from you by building their own
support organization for the software.  However, Oracle being closed
source hasn't stopped that very thing from happening there.

You could argue that opening the source allows the product to
fragment.  This is true.  Linux is extremely fragmented.  On the other
hand, it has a very healthy financial ecosystem, and generally an
application is certified for some very specific deployment.  As
someone mentioned before, customers don't really care about the OS.
They care about the app.  If your app deploys on Red Hat Linux instead
of Ubuntu, 9 times out of 10 your customer isn't even interested.