Linux: The Quickening
The computer software industry is best explained by comparing it to science fiction.
Thursday, July 13th, 2006
Perhaps I’m a serious nerd, but sometimes I think the computer software industry is best explained by comparing it to science fiction.
Previously, I said that Linux should take a page from Senator Palpatine in
Star Wars: Let’s kill off all the Jedi — the rogue projects, the superfluous open source licenses, and anything else that distracts us from accomplishing our mission — and form the Linux Empire in the name of standardization to finally realize the dream of Total World Domination. (See
http://www.linux-mag.com/content/view/2210/48/1/1/.)
Or then again, with companies like Oracle and Red Hat now in major league acquisition-mode, I’m reminded of something like Highlander II, before we enter a period of full-blown Star Wars Episode III. Yeah, the former was a horrendously bad movie, especially before they edited out all that Planet Zeist crap and re-released the film, but bear with me.
If we take what Sean Connery’s swashbuckling character “Rodriguez” says at face value, that in the end, “There can only be one” (okay, maybe two or three), then the current state of the Linux software industry is currently someplace between Highlander and Highlander II. In comparison, three or four years ago, we were more like Dune, where all the Great Houses were vying for power and attention.
