"This isn’t some crazy far-off future world in some Cory Doctorow novel where the rebel forces of goodness and light topple the media empires. This is today. It’s Homestar Runner, it’s Red vs. Blue, it’s weblogs, it’s peer-to-peer. It’s a fundamentally new world where people may money off their creativity not by encrypting it as many times as they can but by giving as much away as possible.

"People keep telling me copyright law is needed because people are naturally stupid and evil, and they won’t pay for things unless you make them, and no one will make anything unless they get paid. Sure looks like they were wrong." I'm reminded of Bruce Sterling's 1994 novel Heavy Weather, where almost everyone is a media author...
Comments 10:48:33 AM    

IDC and Meta Group both predict that up to 15% of government and large educational institutions will be on Linux/OpenOffice.org/StarOffice by 2008. That's millions of seats...

Linux desktops like Novell's Ximian and Sun's Java Desktop System are already as useful as Windows/Office 98/2000 imho... as indeed are most recent GNOME- and KDE-based distros. For a year I've been writing articles and manuals in Star Office on Windows and (increasingly) Linux and collaborating with editors and others using Ximian's very nice Evolution mail/contact/calendar app. I have yet to hear of a problem with document compatibility with users on Windows, Macs and Linux. You don't have to be a Geek to use Linux anymore.

If millions of cubicle workers begin using Linux daily, how long will those folks keep spending $600 to equip home PCs with Microsoft products? As PC prices continue to decline, will people put $600 worth of software on $299 or $199 computers? I'm guessing we'll see some very interesting developments in Redmond in 2004...
Comments 10:10:05 AM    

Chris Gulker's view from Silicon Valley - in words and pictures