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How Microsoft-Yahoo Will Affect Open Source
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Monday February 04, @02:37PM
from the something-to-think-about dept.
from the something-to-think-about dept.
jammag writes "If the marriage of Microsoft and Yahoo were to be consummated, GNU/Linux would be hindered, argues Roy Schestowitz. Yahoo's funding of open source initiatives would dry up. Yahoo, which acquired Zimbra, would lose its love for the open source competitor of Microsoft Outlook. The list goes on..."
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Ok by me (Score:4, Insightful)
Who will I ping ? (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know why but I always ping yahoo to troubleshoot my network connection. I guess I'll have to switch to ping 'google.com'
two vast and trunkless legs of stone.com (Score:5, Funny)
Re:two vast and trunkless legs of stone.com (Score:5, Funny)
So probably best not to get into the habit of pinging av.com, either...
P.S. Nice subject line
Re:Who will I ping ? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Who will I ping ? (Score:5, Informative)
i've started using the 10 minute email [10minutemail.com] instead of yahoo for junk, works wonders
Re:Ok by me (Score:5, Interesting)
Firstly, I don't believe GNU/Linux development will be seriously hindered. It's long since reached a tipping point past which any major disruptions are unlikely.
This might be a good time, however, for people to begin looking at some of the BSDs. Yes, I realize Yahoo! is a major BSD customer, and should this deal go through I can't see Microsoft permitting the existence of anything else on their servers. Still, the BSDs are also widely deployed, reliable, and many would argue that the BSD license is less encumbering. Also, it has a formal foundation and governance which effectively ensures it's survival.
I've been an open source user/administrator now for over 12 years (12 w/ Linux, 11 w/ BSD) and am surprised at the relatively low uptake for this family of operating systems. In short, Linux ain't the only game in town.
Re:Ok by me (Score:5, Funny)
Roy Schestowitz, take with prescribed NaCl (Score:5, Informative)
Roy Schestowitz is a non-entity who spends 18 hours a day crapflooding USENET [google.com] (just page back and see who posts there), Digg, Propeller and any number of social bookmarking and discussion websites. This, aside from running who knows how many attack blogs that target Novell, Xandros, Linspire and many others beg the question of whether this is just a lonely poor student with no life whatsoever or a very organized group of people with some serious corporate backing.
Anyone deranged enough to post things like [digg.com] these [digg.com] should be, in my opinion, permanently ignored. The Microsoft-Yahoo merger needs to be analyzed from many angles by people who know what they're talking about, not by paid drones who regurgitate what they read in other blogs and are trying to make a name for themselves by disrupting communities to push their agendas.
Re:Roy Schestowitz, take with prescribed NaCl (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Holy shit! (Score:5, Funny)
Zimbra Admins (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Zimbra Admins (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Zimbra Admins (Score:5, Interesting)
Zimbra users already seem to be sending out some feelers -- over at the Citadel [citadel.org] project we've had quite a surge of new interest from people who are either bailing out of Zimbra or simply evaluating what other options they might have when Microsoft shuts them down. Citadel is end-to-end GPL code so it is a true safety net.
Ok, so.. (Score:5, Interesting)
It's Official (Score:5, Funny)
Cathedral and the Bazaar (Score:4, Insightful)
Alas, as Linux has gotten bigger and more complex, it is also requiring more capital to sustain itself as well, and capital means corporate funding. How ironic that the bazaar has grown to becoming a sprawling, flopping, traffic jammed, flea market, and suddenly key parts of the bazaar are suspiciously looking rather cathedral like (FireFox, the kernel).
I predict that within a few years, Linux will grow to the point that its advocates will quietly abandon the collaborative, libertarian rhetoric that drove it early on, and instead turn more towards a quest for government funding along the lines of National Public Radio. It will continually seek corporate sponsorship, even as it decries their existence.
Re:Cathedral and the Bazaar (Score:5, Insightful)
del.icio.us Bookmarks (Score:4, Interesting)
(Off Topic) New Microsoft story icon submission (Score:5, Insightful)
For that I don't think we need to go much further than the picture at the top of this story...
http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/yahoo-bid-bad-news-for-the-net-says-google/2008/02/04/1201973796947.html [smh.com.au]
Many things would be affected (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft will not continue to run on an open source platform, like they did with Hotmail.
- PHP: heavily used in Yahoo. Yahoo employs PHP founder and project lead Rasmus Lerdorf.
- Apache: Yahoo uses Apache heavily, and has many patches and modules for it. IIS will replace it.
- MySQL: likewise, they use it heavily. Expect MS-SQL in there.
- FreeBSD and Linux: they use them a lot. Expect those to be turfed for Windows.
- Yahoo YUI javascript library.
Yahoo also hosts open source events (e.g. OSCMS: Open Source Content Management Systems back in March 2007).
All the sponsorship money, paying salaries for open source leads,
This is not good news at all.
What a bad article (Score:5, Informative)
Running? Yahoo! is one of the largest infrastructure sponsors of the FreeBSD project and last time I checked even had people employed that are committers on the project. So yes, any take over of Yahoo! by Microsoft will no doubt put a huge dent into the FreeBSD Project's infrastructure that cannot easily be replaced in my opinion. So it's not just about running...
It gets worse (Score:5, Interesting)
And to think that just recently MS was released from Federal oversight. All of this makes a good case for either FTC to step in or for either IBM or even Sun to purchase Yahoo. Otherwise, those companies will see *nix take a HUGE hit on the net. For IBM it will hurt a bit, but for Sun, it will destroy them.
Re:Microsoft 2.0 (Score:5, Interesting)
Open Source: Apache, Tomcat, Linux (been in a server room lately?), MySQL, Perl, Python, Ruby, Rails, GNU Compiler Collection, Vim, Emacs, Netbeans, Solaris, Java, Glassfish, Sendmail, Postfix, Exim, OpenLDAP, ISC Bind.
Look at all those loser applications. Give me a couple more minutes I might think of some more.
Maybe you're stuck in an anachronistic office suite kind of existence, but few folks I know could care less about creating gratuitously formatted meeting minutes.
I'm all for freedom, including your freedom to keep feeding your money to companies who do little more than capriciously alter their file formats and protocols on a semi-annual basis to compel otherwise useless upgrades. Of course, some folks just like to spend money to have shiny objects too. Fine with me, I do the same thing sometimes. Just remember, in a free market, victory goes to the most efficient and productive; and wasting money on services and software that have been commoditized is a loser.
Re:10 minutes to fork both Zimbra & YUI (Score:5, Funny)
Then you're screwed.
Not really sure where I'm going with this one, but it's a scary thought.