Kudos to Glyn Moody
Glyn Moody’s blog is a source - no a font - no a fountain - of information and commentary regarding all things Open (& Source).
In the last day or so he’s posted three articles (among several others) that have really grabbed my attention:
First this one: I would not have believed it had I not gone to Tesco’s web site and verified it myself.
Tesco may not be a name that means much outside the UK, but the fact that this huge retailer is selling GNU/Linux-based systems - some for as little as £140 (without a screen) - is pretty significant.
PRETTY SIGNIFICANT? It’s nothing short of amazing in my book. I can understand how Dell and Lenovo can do it. But Tesco? They must have a very strong conviction in Linux to sell it to what I imagine to be their “typical” customer. I notice they are supplying the LTS (Long Term Support) version of Ubuntu (6.06) so I wonder if they have a support arrangement directly with Canonical? Does anyone know anything more about this?
Then this on the EU vs. Microsoft case:
I worry that there’s some wiggle room here - just what exactly is “the open source business model”? - but given the soundness of its thrashing, maybe Microsoft really has given up fighting the EU. Let’s hope.
I love a damn good thrashing don’t you? (Bit of an English Public School joke in there somewhere). I tried to get the detail on this yesterday via Groklaw but PJ’s analysis seemed a little dour. But maybe that’s just because of the stupid IP/Patenting laws in the USA.
And then to cap it all this from Mozilla:
It’s also doing rather well on just about every other metric, as Mitchell’s post “Beyond Sustainability” explains. Recommended reading.
Which I hadn’t seen. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Mitchell’s post is indeed great reading. Mozilla is a true powerhouse in the Open Source ecosystem, and seems for the most part, to be successfully juggling the twin balls of making money and keeping a strong public community behind it. Some of the statistics are incredible… Go and have a read.
And stick Glyn’s blog on your RSS feed reader while you’re there.
