conclusions aren't as absolute as Techworld makes them sound [LWN.net]

conclusions aren't as absolute as Techworld makes them sound

Posted Sep 11, 2006 18:45 UTC (Mon) by stevenj (subscriber, #421)
In reply to: more information by stevenj
Parent article: Windows will beat Linux threat, say academics (TechWorld)

Anyway, let's not be Slashdot and jump on the most inflammatory quote in the article. If you look at what the authors actually say, their conclusions are much less extreme and absolute than what the Techworld writer seems to imply.

In particular, if you read the interview I linked, the authors state that when you include strategic buyers (large entities choosing free software for reasons other than the immediate cost) or cost asymmetries (if you assume that GNU/Linux development is more efficient than Windows development), then Linux-based systems can indeed displace Windows in their model.

The authors, in the original article, also caution that theirs is a "stripped-down structure with which to work rather than a more or less faithful representation of the actual interactions between Linux and Windows [...] we think that the model’s sparseness brings into sharp focus certain effects that should, at a minimum, be kept in mind in the real-world context (as opposed to not being recognized at all)."

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conclusions aren't as absolute as Techworld makes them sound

Posted Sep 11, 2006 20:12 UTC (Mon) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Indeed. I thought the TechWorld article must be oversimplifying things, as
under their logic Linux would never have got going at all, i.e., a
contradiction.