The Penguin on the Desktop (IT-Director)
Interest in Linux is also exploding elsewhere in the third world from Brazil to the Philippines, so the possibility arises that the Linux desktop will proliferate from the ground up, storming the North American and European markets after establishing economies of scale in the third world."
Posted Jun 23, 2003 20:22 UTC (Mon)
by toon (guest, #511)
[Link] (1 responses)
Toon Moene (current GNU Fortran maintainer).
Posted Jun 24, 2003 1:55 UTC (Tue)
by njhurst (guest, #6022)
[Link]
My understanding of economy of scale is that it is the lower per unit cost due to the spreading out of the initial development costs. For free software this would translate to lower per unit cost such as installation time and learning curve because enough people have done the ground work.
Posted Jun 24, 2003 6:48 UTC (Tue)
by AnswerGuy (guest, #1256)
[Link]
By "economies of scale" I presume they are referring to issues other than software development. Things like installation on an assembly line, integration into a commodity user product, documentation, and demoware.
This isn't all just "economies of scale" it's alot of marketing and polish work!
Let's face it. Linux has a long way to go before it has the polish and non-technical consumer appeal of Mac OS. I'd love to see a distribution of Linux that installed with a full audio visual introduction, like the Apple Performa with Mac OS 7.x I bought for my mother a number of years ago. Broader commercial availability and demand will fuel the development of such enhancements.
What are the "economies of scale" in free software development ?The Penguin on the Desktop (IT-Director)
I'd guess the 'economies of scale' in the free software world are things like the network effect - software which has lots of local support and manufacturer level support has an economic advantage over those that don't.The Penguin on the Desktop (IT-Director)
Economies of Scale