Open Source Goes Corporate (InformationWeek)

Posted Sep 26, 2005 19:16 UTC (Mon) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

Who knows. I think it is a very poor article: it makes strange identification of Linux with open source, is full of contradictions and is clueless on various levels.

Compare this:

Licensing is one of the biggest challenges for open-source users, Yahoo's Jeremy Zawodny says.

with this:

Yahoo has designated an employee to manage open-source licensing terms and legal issues.

See, real challenge: Yahoo has designated an employee (perhaps a paralegal, maybe even full-time) to manage licenses. Probably a misquote. On the other hand, see what this idiot has to say:

"You don't have to buy industrial-strength software to support all areas of the business," says Nick Gray, UPS's director for architectural services. "You can use an open-source application [...]"

or this one:

"You're always weighing the value of having a company like Microsoft behind you or relying on an open-source community you have no control over," says Larry Kinder, CIO of travel conglomerate Cendant Corp.

... and then goes on to say how he saved $100M in 4 years. Well, Larry, why not spend half that money on paid support? I guess $12M a year pays a lot of geek time.

It is not unusual to have clueless reporting in general media; but this magazine claims to represent "business innovation powered by technology". I pity the CIO that believes such nonsense.