2004--The Geek revolution is on the march--the end of (quite a bit of) commercial software (...eventually)

By Tom Foremski - December 20, 2004

by Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher.com


2004--Linux and the Open Source Debate Finishes: It’s over. Linux and open source software won.

Open source software is a lot more than just Linux -- there is an amazing amount of free or almost free server-side software and not a huge talent pool. Do not waste your time on any more debates on this subject -- it’s over. If you are an application developer keep scrambling up the stack because open source will kill you or good-enough will.

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Linux: The penguin is just everywhere


What will occupy the idle cycles of millions of Indian, Chinese, Russian, Polish, Phillipine, and other programmers coming onto the global market? What will they do with their spare time? Not all of them, but a lot of them will put energy and brains into open source software projects, which means there is a lot more coming. Software will be free because it can be free -- there is a business model for free software.

You can do a heck of a lot with free server-side software such as MySQL, PHP, Perl and a boatload of open source application scripts. Yes, it does take a little bit of time to string it all together, but then you are done for a good while. Virtually free IT -- stick it onto the most efficient business processes you can find. You end up with a highly-efficient, highly-automated, low-cost business process(es) module. This is one part of the emerging New Rules Enterprise--more on that next year.

2004--Blogs, blogging and bloggers: There was a lot of it and there will be a lot more next year. East of Reno it's still brand new. I've always maintained that there is a cultural lag, a several month gap between the cultural waves of ideas that ripple out of Silicon Valley. The Foremski universal cultural konstant states that new ideas on innovation take about 6 months to travel 3,000 miles, or about to the East coast of the US :-) Europe would be about a year behind.

So, that means a good 18 months or more of interest in blogging, and blogging about blogging. Which is pretty good if you are a blogger.

Silicon Valley is back: It’s true. You’ll see more signs of it next year.

What did you see in 2004?

dk0935


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By Tom Foremski - December 20, 2004 | Permalink | Category: Tech Watch
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