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October 22, 2004

The Linux Play

A great comment from Dwight over in Portland who asked about Open Source and Microsoft's play there. He's not a Linux bigot even though he lives in Portland, but is certainly a great observer of the computer business. It was part of a great question about the Microsoft response to Open Source and whether the threat of litigation would work

I want to politely take issue for an eerie historical reason with your comment that the Microsofts latest open source riposte (essentially, beware the litigation threat from intellectual property issues) will have legs.

That litigation observation is just a bring down, in slightly different terms, of something IBM guys used to say in the heyday of Big Iron. Back then whenever someone appeared on the verge of straying from the way of Big Blue a similar threat/observation used to be heard. It was put in terms of cautionary advice to make a safe career decision, not dressed up as IP litigation risk, but had the same basic fear thrustand so the drill would turn into a survey of alternatives, evaluation of options, and recommendation of whatever IBM offered. It was effective enough initially to eventually become a standing joke.

Threats of litigation sometimes work as weedkiller to deal with minor
nuisances. But they arent a good tool for general application and, to anyone reflecting on it, dropping them is a sign of situational weakness. Interesting to see both IBM and Microsoft employing the fear cautionary, and both in the aftermath of successful antitrust defenses of their franchise, (but that last is probably a false correlative).

Anyway, enjoyed your talk. Thanks for giving it and I will look for your book when it comes out.

Posted by rich at October 22, 2004 10:29 PM

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