The Future of Linux

14 July 1998

More Audience Questions and Answers

What if price were factored out of the Datapro survey? How would Linux fare then?

• Larry Augustin pointed out that Linux not only won overall but also in specific categories like reliability and technical support (in which NT was at the bottom). [See also John Kirch's excellent white paper, Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX, and Nick Petreley's final NC World column, Will Windows NT develop into a super-OS or an unmanageable disaster?, for interesting and detailed discussions of costs, reliability, functionality, and so on.]
• Robert Hart noted that the survey covered hard-core IS folks at corporate data centers, for whom price would be less of an issue anyway.

There's no consolidated Linux answer source--how can I deal with management's need to ``feel secure'' about their software?

• Robert Hart note that there's lots of commercial support available (including from Red Hat).
• Linus Torvalds felt that the question was ``somewhat of a red herring''--managers just want to have heard of it and are really using the issue as a weapon, not as a real reason. If a manager is secure enough about the need for Linux, he'll do so.
• Jeremy Allison: ``I know a fair amount about NT and security and would convince your manager not to feel secure about NT.''

What about the perception that Linux users don't like paying for software?

• Robert Hart handled this one; he said it's ``not an issue''--among other things, Red Hat wouldn't be in business if that were true, since the $50 Red Hat distribution can be downloaded for free from many ftp sites.

Why is Open Source important to the public?

• Jeremy Allison: It's the same as open government; you can check up on it.
• Linus Torvalds: The public should be relieved that it exists--most will never need it, but the option to look at it is there and provides a level of safety (not just the feeling of safety).

For Linus: who of the major RDBMS's have talked to you about ports?

• Linus Torvalds: ``No one has talked to me about it.'' He went on to say that, when originally asked, his reaction was that RDBMS's are ``an example of something so boring that they will never be free.'' (``I was wrong about that--some people find them really exciting. I'm just not one of them.'')
• Larry Augustin said he thought we'd probably see ports becoming available over the next year (or something like that).
• Linus Torvalds: ``He's saying that he knows but can't talk about it.'' [Note the previously mentioned InfoWorld Electric articles on the soon-to-be-announced Informix and Oracle 8 Linux ports. Also keep in mind that Computer Associates announced a Linux port of Ingres II earlier this month, available in September.]

From one of the GIMP developers: what does the Open Source world do about patent issues, such as the Pantone color management system and LZW algorithm used in GIF and TIFF?

• Linus Torvalds said that patents, especially software patents, are ``a can of worms'' and are probably the biggest danger to Open Source. They do eventually expire, but it's looong time. His suggestion was to come up with an even better algorithm that's patent-free.
• Larry Augustin asked developers who run into such problems to make them known to Linux International.
• Jeremy Allison: ``It's really hideous.'' But he noted that the ``most insane'' patents are in the US, which means the US effectively ends up exporting jobs and development to other countries. Encryption is a prime example of this sort of thing [although that's more an issue of regulation than of patents].

From a C|Net admin: I would like a better BIOS, like Sun's.

• Sunil Saxena said that that's coming next year.
• Larry Augustin said he's got a stack of BIOS-related NDAs on his desk...
• Robert Hart commented that modern BIOS support (e.g., remote upgrades) is ``really important for 1000-node clusters.''

Will we see wide use of Internet clusters as supercomputers? Will Linux have a 3D user interface like [vapor-]Chrome?

• Larry Augustin pointed out that 3D apps like POV-Ray and Quake II running on the Mesa OpenGL clone library were being demoed in the rear.
• Linus Torvalds said that clustering software like Beowulf is great for 3D rendering [and many large scientific applications] but not well suited to business apps. [Jason Riedy pointed out on Slashdot that distributed database systems are one category of business application for which Beowulf is well suited.]

Will Willows provide a Win32 subsystem for Linux?

• Linus Torvalds said that the software he was looking for is WINE; it's not perfect (in fact, ``it does very few things perfectly''), but it does a good job, and there are people using it to run Quicken and Word.
• Jeremy Allison disagreed; he said that WINE and Willows may get to the point that they're OK for some apps, but Quicken and other old apps ``are not what people want.'' Samba is OK because it's only based on wire protocols, and Microsoft can't change those without pissing off their huge customer base. But ``every app is an OS upgrade''--Microsoft can mutate the APIs faster than developers can keep up.

From a web-site developer: I have to have two machines, a Linux-based web server and a Windows box for Photoshop--how much longer will I have to do that? Also, a marketing question: there's a Microsoft talking Barney; when will we see Talking Tux?

• A SVLUG guy took the second question first; he said he knows an engineer who is hacking the weak encryption built into Barney (i.e., one will be able to write Linux apps for it).
• Larry Augustin pointed to the GIMP, a free, Photoshop-like application running on some of the demo machines.
• Robert Hart mentioned Corel's conversion to Linux, including CorelDRAW 8, and I think suggested that Adobe will have to respond to that or lose market share.

From a business-applications perspective, what can we do to get Microsoft to do native ports of Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Exchange, etc.?

• Robert Hart responded: you can already read and write the files created by those apps; as for Exchange, ``we have something called Sendmail...'' [chuckles from the admins in the audience] One of the panelists commented that if Microsoft ports their apps, ``we've won.'' [Of course, Apple didn't win...]

How about Linux branding on boxes to assure that shrink-wrapped apps are tested and safe?

• Larry Augustin: Linux International is considering several such approaches, including the Linux Standard Base.

There's a proposed change to US state laws about reverse-engineering; what impact will it have?

• A lawyer in the audience stood up and gave some background: Draft Article 2B of the proposed update to the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), under consideration beginning 26 July 1998, has provisions that would prohibit ``Fair Use'' copying and reverse engineering, both of which are currently protected by US law. [IEEE summary for software engineers; thanks to Michael Cope for the links] She also mentioned a bill that supposedly would abolish software patents and urged the Linux community to become politically active and look up addresses (postal and e-mail) and phone numbers of government representatives on the web. [I've searched Thomas for such a bill, and the closest thing I can find is H.R.400, a major bill to update Title 35. But I don't see anything in either the summary or the amendments (moving link, sorry) about software and/or algorithmic patents, so perhaps I misheard or she misspoke.]
• Jeremy Allison pointed out that you can find documentation for all of Microsoft's file formats on their web site. He also said that in the case of compound (e.g., linked/embedded/active) documents, reality and posted documentation differ.
• Linus Torvalds, clearly disgusted with US law as a whole, noted that the US, like France and Iraq, ``has a reputation for stupidity'' in such things as encryption (and patents and other legal issues).

Copyright © 1998 Greg Roelofs.