[PLUG-TALK] World Domination 201

[Keith Lofstrom]

On 12/31/06, Jeme A Brelin <jeme at brelin.net> wrote:

>There is no substitute for an administrator (or at least well-educated
>user).

On Sun, Dec 31, 2006 at 11:09:43AM -0800, Larry Brigman wrote:
> But like the original URL paper states, the smarter the person,
> the busier; such that they cannot be bothered to learn the system.
> They just want to use the tools.
> The underlying details are unimportant.

The greatest weakness, and the greatest /potential/ strength, of
Linux is sysadmin.  Almost everybody in the industrial world uses
the world's most largest and most complex computer system daily;
no, not Google, but the public switched telephone system.  And 
users accomplish this using little more than a dozen buttons.  And
it Just Works, because the user is not forced to master the details
(but yes, you can get Asterisk on your Linux box and dive into them
if you want).

Linux can be just that easy.  It is secure, virtualizable, and 
naturally accomodates communication and broadband and distributed
tasks.  It is great for infrastructure tasks.  Because it is free
as in freedom, it is potentially infinitely refactorable.  So the
sysadmin tasks can be distributed among many providers and around
the world, with a highly efficient division of labor between human
and algorithm.  So the master carpenter can use her computer without
worrying an more about it than the composition of the motors in her
power tools.  All it will take is a non-arrogant, service-oriented,
and scaling-minded attitude in a sysadmin service provider, and
Linux will become the easy choice for most (and that provider will
become filthy rich while doing good).

We are still figuring out how to penetrate deeply into a world that
is still mostly proprietary.  If the GPL isolationists have their
way, we will stay separated from most of the world by a wall of
self-imposed incompatability.  If the GPL appeasers have their way,
we will watch our code get nibbled away by larcenous schemers and
enclosed in proprietary domains. 

A third strategy, engulf and devour, has been used successfully by
our principle competition, and we should study this strategy and
apply it ourselves.  We can swallow whole all the proprietary
lumps like DRM, and if the rest of our system works well, we will
dissolve them over time.  It is all about economic advantage and
personal convenience - if it is cheaper and more fun to avoid DRM,
it will go away.  With the right tools, creation is more satisfying
than consumption.  If open communities become the creation platform
of choice, then the minority that favors the DRM paradigm will stay
small and toothless.

So it is up to us, not to focus on DRM and what we reject, but to
focus on our strengths and amplify them, while correcting our own
self-imposed weaknesses.  We will not get there by pretending to
be Microsoft; we have much better to offer.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs