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Message Posted: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 @ 17:22:47 GMT

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david.a.hough wrote:

This is a bit tongue-in-cheek, I realize. But still there is a lot of fear, uncertainty, and doubt being spread about "free software" these days.

I think the situation described above makes perfect sense... The OS kernel these days is a commodity. So much so that it should cost next to nothing to get one that performs very well. In fact OS kernels are so well understood that some young adult in Finland built a pretty good one that has since been made even better by a cooperative community in an nearly altruistic style.

The kernel is the platform. We don't really have to fight over it anymore.

What NCR, Oracle, IBM, etc. can now do with that low cost platform is add proprietary value that is *not* so easily reproduced. The Teradata architecture is one instance of that kind of value.

Someday if some guy (or gal) somewhere is able to build a scalable, robust database for "free" then so be it. Then we'll know that technology is now also a commodity, we can move to it, and pay some organizations to add value on top of *that*.

Just because the OS kernel is free doesn't mean everything above it must also be free. You really do get what you pay for!

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