Open Source, Closed Market?

From the play that I just finished directing, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, a high powered salesman, Charles Dabenow Schmendiman, claims to have had another great idea. "A tall pointy cap for dunces!"

So I tried one on an I had another great idea; I will take the freely offered Open Source code for say... something by Mozilla, how about Firefox. I will fully honor the spirit of the Open Source agreement and leave in all the tributes and adulations to the original authors. I will just slightly touch the source ... just enough so that instead of Fire it would be... PapaFox. Then I will release my version into the wild and wait for my share of the estimated $55 Million that Mozilla in enjoying.

So how come Mozilla isn't shaking in its boots over the prospect of PapaFox cutting so deeply into their revenue stream? Huh? Oh yeah, and where is my cut of that revenue stream - why aren't folks beating a path to my door? It is after all their product just slightly repackaged - "No difference."

• Who in their right mind would download from me what they can get from the original authors? They can get a package that they know will have integrity. The package will be up-to-date. In short the package offered by Mozilla is the real deal.
  
  
• So let's say that I could overcome the image issue of PapaFox. Then, in order to really make it mine I would have to substantially alter the original. Now I am not a programmer nor do I play a Doctor on TV but I know a thing or two about programs. They are huge! They are complex!
  
  Who would have the resources to invest in 'bootlegging' an Open Source application? Where is the profit incentive? Oh I know, I could sell PapaFox for substantially less than Mozilla is getting for it....Uh yeah, what is less than zero?

Now, just for the sake of discussion... lets say that I was able to overcome the previous two stumbling blocks... and I was moderately successful in offering a FireFox decendent that I actually made better (than the original) all the while adhering to the spirit of Open Source software. Now, jftsod, lets say that people started to download and use PapaFox.

Mozilla could take any of three paths; 'lawyer-up', 'pump-up' or 'wither-and-die'. When faced with the Cease&Desist order and being the uber-underdog I would laugh in their faces and try my case in the court of public opinion. Should they decide to Pump-Up then the race is on, as it should be. First they can simply re-incorporate my improvements right back into FireFox (all the while upholding the spirit of the Open Source agreement). Or they could 'black-box' engineer the improvements and just leave me out of it. In either case the product has improved and the consumer has received the real value of the exercise. Lastly, of course Mozilla could simple walk away from their product and I would be the heir apparent as the next browser king. Until the next uber-underdog came along.

This last option, Wither-and-Die, is not all that uncommon in Open Source projects. Authors for a myriad of reasons have to let programs go. Some cannot afford to maintain them. Some just lose interest. The real grace of the Open Source system shines through when an interested individual resurrects an program that has lain fallow. They breath new life into it and once again give it to the community.

The Iraq Scenario

Wirearchy offers a 7 stage plane for the US' involvement in Iraq...

Plan A - Attack

Plan B - Beat 'Em Up

Plan C - Clusterf*ck

Plan D - Denial

Plan E - Escalate

Plan F - Failure

Plan G - Get The Troops Out

Ya only left out a couple of points... The 'official offal plan' never went beyond "b"... And the Iraqi people saw right through the charade from the git go... Bush&Cheney never intended to leave so why bother to work up an exit strategy.

DELLinux Redux

Dell and Novell sitting in a tree ChannelWeb Network (CRN Magazine) is reporting this morning...

Microsoft and Novell said Monday that Dell has become the first major system vendor to join their controversial technology and marketing alliance, agreeing to work with Microsoft to distribute SUSE Linux Enterprise Server certificates.

I am guessing here but I bet that this is the 'deal' that Dell had to agree to in order to get out from under the MS thumb for offering PCs preloaded with... er, uh, ... Linux.

Prediction: Ubuntu and Dell

PLEASE prove me wrong!!!

Dell will half-heartedly role out a few PCs preloaded with Ubuntu. Any possible market share will be diminished by the lack of enthusiasm displayed by Dell. As a marketing ploy they appealed to the voice of public opinion. When sales tank due to lack of their belief in their product the Dell PR guys will stay away in droves.

When, not if, folks start to have questions about 'how to do this' or 'how to fix that' Dell will throw up its collective hands and say, "Well, you know that Linux is Open Source. Go ask the community how to 'do that' or 'fix this'." Without a clear profit incentive Dell will hardly be willing to invest in the necessary support to get their products over the initial bump. When the first report comes back that Dell isn't standing behind their Linux systems customers will join the PR guys, staying away in droves.

People, the few that actually buy the Ubuntu PC, will then raise such a verbal stink AND POINT THE WAGGING FINGER at Linux and say, "This Linux stuff sux!" Gimme back my warm&fuzzy&bloated&addictive Weendoze.

The whole thing should take no longer than 4 months from the date Dell first ships...

I Feel so all alone...

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Hmmmmmmmm, I am pretty sure that my son, William Meloney is still alive and living at home and tearing up the bandwidth uploading great stop-motion animation videos to YouTube.

Bad blog, bad blog!

Sit, stay, roll-over... don't put links in your articles.

Bad blog!

Don'tcha just hate it when somebody writes an article about an interesting program and then doesn't include a link to the program's site?

BTW: the link that I was after in the article I was reading is
... Pidgin is the new GAIM

Invisible IT

Joshua Porter cites

Five Principles to Design By

which puts the IT business in very clear perspective.

Technology Serves Humans.

Technology serves humans. Humans do not serve technology.

Design is not Art.

Good Design is something that works well.

The Experience Belongs to the User.

The ultimate experience is something that happens in the user, and it is theirs. They own it.

Great Design is Invisible.

An interesting property of great design is that it is taken for granted.

Bad design is obvious because it hurts to use.

Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication.

[It] is the highest achievement for a designer.

---

I have long contended that our stated goal in IT is to be[come] invisible. Recent studies published by important folks in the know have stated that IT is not a competitive business practice. (e.g. We won't gain greater market share because we have a bigger IT department than our competition.) In this day and age everybody has an IT department, in house or out-sourced or BILB (Brother-in-Law Bob). So when it comes to customer service, providing the commodity of IT to the end users, our objective is to make it as simple as possible and as invisible as possible.

Let the users, our customers, be about the work of our business not the busy-ness of IT.

Thanks Joshua

Picasso; Before and After...

This is my original rough sketch set design for the Theater Workshop of Owensboro (TWO) production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile, a comedy by Steve Martin. (Rendered with Microsoft Paint)



SketchUp ROCKZ!

This "rough" rendering was generated using SketchUp from Google. I cannot say enough about it as a design tool. In addition to perspective rendering it is possible to alter the POV (point of view). This allows the viewer to 'sit' anywhere in the audience and see what the set will look like. I used the existing textures and color pallette. I am sure that with more time and effort I could have offered an more exact rendering.




While not fully 'dressed' this is the set. --->

Set Construction (including tables) is the very fine work of Mr. Aaron Brown and his son Austin.