Re: [unrev-II] More on MS and open source

From: Jack Park (jackpark@thinkalong.com)
Date: Wed Sep 05 2001 - 11:55:45 PDT

  • Next message: Grant Bowman: "Re: [unrev-II] More on MS and open source"

    At 02:13 PM 9/5/2001 -0400, you wrote:
    >Very good story! It brings up a couple of thoughts:
    >
    >1. What about Ximian & OHS?

    I picked up a flier on Ximian at LinuxWorld last week. Didn't take much
    time to study it because I had just come from watching a demo of Open
    Office (Star Office, open source) and was completely captivated by what I
    saw. I have been saying for a while that it may well be that OHS is simply
    a substrate on which some future version of Open Office and Mozilla browser
    play major user interface roles.

    On another tack, I'm not sure we can completely ignore the .NET issue; MS
    has 30 billion bucks in the bank and one way or another, I suspect we will
    have to live with .NET -- perhaps seeing an end to DCOM, who knows...

    So, open source variants of the .NET system might be important in the future.

    >2. What can our e-journal do to enhance public computer literacy?
    >Particularly make people comfortable with open-source OS.

    First, well, maybe not first, but eventually, bootstrap.org MUST eat its
    own dogfood, meaning we cannot continue to rely on proprietary software;
    we'll just have to do it all with open source stuff. That will eventually
    mean we should not be running on Solaris or Wintel anything.

    Next, we need mind share. I have been proposing, for a long time now, that
    there be created (and funded) an Engelbart-Nelson Prize, one that awards
    those projects and behaviors that contribute most (in some time period) to
    bootstrapping and solving complex, urgent problems. I have conjectured
    that major funding would fall all over itself to be a part of such an
    enterprise, and that enterprise would then be in a position to pay for the
    labor involved in publishing first class information and knowledge
    resources associated with the enterprise. In Context would be, in my mind,
    the center of that universe.

    When I polled Ted Nelson about the idea, I think it is fair to summarize
    his feeling that he might (soft, very fuzzy here) get interested
    particularly if he could maintain his platform for reminding us about how
    badly things are being done these days. His rants, alone, would make such
    a Web based enterprise, at once, extremely entertaining, and
    informative. The game here is "Facilitated Evolution" and nothing
    facilitates creativity quite like prize money.

    >3. Which Linux desktop is from De Icaza?

    Isn't it called Gnome? It was built because the K-Desktop used a
    proprietary widget system and Gnome started completely open source. A
    trend I am watching is one centered around the idea that widgets built for
    K work interchangeably with Gnome, and vice versa. Without that, Linux
    looses big time.

    >I would particularly like to see a discussion around Item 2. Maybe after a
    >bit of rambling and wrong tacks, we can develop a viable plan. That
    >plan ought include some assessment of what the "curriculum" for public
    >computency should include.
    >
    >One testimony to the lack of this "human system - tool system
    >co-evolution" is that a huge number of people are buying new computers simply
    >because they are afraid to try "upgrading" an operating system. Computer
    >manufacturers love new OS versions for that reason. But it says
    >something about our society.
    >
    >Henry

    It seems to me that there is, indeed, a window of opportunity opening while
    we observe the confusion and obfuscation being scattered over the unwashed
    masses with regards to the OS du jour. Unfortunately, I don't think the
    Open Source folks are well enough positioned in mind share to take
    advantage of this emerging situation. To me, this only means that OHS, no
    matter what it eventually looks like, will have, as one of its many
    complex, urgent sand boxes, the task of cleaning up the vast number of
    security and privacy violations that are headed our way. Certainly, some
    editorial material on evolutionary issues related to monocultures and so
    forth are in order.

    Jack

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