Skip to main content

(Computer) platform strategy

Last week I was invited by Microsoft (Indonesia) in a small discussion. They have a guest from Redmon, Martin Taylor, who is the GM for Platform Strategy. We had a small roundtable discussion. Martin explained what his job is and his experience touring around the world. It was interesting that the people who were invited (four of us) were people who are slanted towards open source.

I think the aim of this meeting is to understand more about IGOS (Indonesia Goes Open Source) movement. What's the main goal of this initiative? Can it be done without specifically use open source? Why limiting the option? Well, I am not part of IGOS, so I cannot answer those questions. (In fact, I have similar questions.)

I pointed out that open source is not their "enemy". Perhaps, Mac OS X is. I am thinking of switching to Mac OS X. I don't feel the excitement with Linux anymore. GNU/Hurd is more interesting. You may laugh, but GNU/Hurd is coming along nicely. It's unfortunate I don't have time to tinker with it.

Another thing that I pointed out is that while Microsoft can be made very inexpensive (eg. through campus agreement in our case), we still have to go get proprietary applications such as Adobe Photoshop and the like. The result is an expensive platform (even if the OS is free!). Most open source and free software applications are available on Linux, but not on Microsoft.

I believe, one of the reasons Linux is popular is the availability of applications. That's why freeBSD is lagging (even though its networking code is 'better'). I can pick many applications (word processors, drawing programs, painting programs, development tools, etc.). Right now I am struggling to find a good drawing program that can generate EPS for my LaTeX document. I used to use tgif under X window. There's no good xfig-like program for MS Windows. (Yes, I know there's winfig. But, it's limitted.) I use cygwin under my MS Windows with FlyakiteOS which makes it looks like a Mac. (Why still use MS Windows? Long story.)

If Microsoft wants to keep leading the desktop world, it should port more open source and free software to MS Windows. (There are many ways doing it.) I don't think they believed me. Well, I tried. I have many ideas but don't have time to put write them down. Besides, Microsoft is smart enough. They don't need me.

As for platform strategy? Well, I have to put more thoughts on it ...

Comments

Anonymous said…
Dear Budi,

I have known -via cyberspace- you very long time ago through newsgroup when you are the admin?? of PAU-Mikro at Manitoba (http://www.cool.mb.ca/indonesia/paumikro/0037.html).

I stumble your post here when I am exploring open source business in Indonesia.

I just want to add that FreeBSD does not lack Linux app at all. It has Linux compatibility libs and it sometimes runs those apps faster than those of bloated distro like Suse. Please check http://www.freshports.org/ for your favorite apps. There are 12928 ports/packages so far.

You are right that FreeBSD Network is faster than say Suse or Debian based distro (I have tested FreeBSD ftp-ing from another machine, it utilizes 90% of 100BaseT steadily), but lean and mean optimized Linux with 2.6.x kernel is at par with FreeBSD.

I am in the process of creating my own distro optimized for i686.

Regards,
Surya
tansuwa_at_gmail_com
12:46 PM
Anonymous said…
Hmm, interesting topics. I believe that the new wave of change in IT has begun, and it should affect us in any minuets.
I just cant wait what will happen with microsoft strategy.
1:45 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Himbauan Kepada Hacker & Cracker Indonesia & Malaysia

Kepada Hacker & Cracker Indonesia & Malaysia, Saya mengharapkan anda tidak melakukan penyerangan atau/dan pengrusakan situs-situs Indonesia dan Malaysia. Saya mengerti bahwa akhir-akhir ini beberapa masalah di dunia nyata membuat kita kesal dan marah. Namun kekesalan tersebut sebaiknya tidak dilimpahkan ke dunia maya (cyberspace). Semestinya sebelum melakukan aksi yang berdampak negatif, kita bisa melakukan langkah-langkah positif seperti melakukan dialog (melalui email, mailing list, bulletin board, blog, dan media elektronik lainnya). Kita harus ingat bahwa kita hidup bertetangga dan bersaudara. Yang namanya hidup bertetangga pasti mengalami perbedaan pendapat. Mari kita belajar bertetangga dengan baik. Saya berharap agar kita yang hidup di dunia maya mencontohkan bagaimana kita menyelesaikan permasalahan dengan kepala dingin dan hati yang lapang, sehingga para pemimpin kita di dunia nyata dapat mencontoh penyelesaian damai. Mudah-mudahan mereka dapat lebih arif dan bijaksana...
292 comments
Read more

Say NO to APJII!

Prolog At the end of 1997, I went back to Indonesia from my studies and work in Canada. The .ID domain management in Indonesia at that time was in a confusing state. Nobody wanted to manage it. Universitas Indonesia (UI) - the original maintainer - was in a fight with APJII (the Association of Indonesian ISP). In the end, IANA gave me a mandate to manage the .ID domain. Since then, I manage the .ID domain with open management. There are problems, but mostly minors. Until recently, when APJII (again) is trying to take over the .ID domain management from my team. Here's a short info to give you a head start. Short summary APJII (the association of ISP in Indonesia) is trying to takeover the .ID domain management in Indonesia. They have tried and will try everything to take over. Long description I've been managing the .ID domain since the end of 1997. At that time, nobody wanted to run the domain management. First of all, a brief description of how we run things. To run the .ID d...
32 comments
Read more

More bad news with Malaysia - Indonesia

I've got more emails and news about bad news between Indonesia and Malaysia. To be exact, there was a news about RELA (not sure what that is) that goes out after Indonesians in Malaysia. There were incidents where they hit Indonesians, rob, and do horrible things. I cannot even write this is my blog. I am so sad and frustrated. What's going on with Malaysia (and Malaysians)? What did we - Indonesian(s) - do to deserve this? I thought there should be less boundary between Indonesia and Malaysia. But ... What's going on there, bro & sis? You know, more Indonesians now feel that they are offended by Malaysians. I can tell you that this bad feeling is increasing. This is a bad publicity towards Malaysia. People are now creating various calling names, such as "Malingsia" (it's a short of "maling" [thief] "siah" [you, Sundanese]), and worse.
34 comments
Read more