To Free or Not to Free the Code in Question
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Epilogue - Market update 200X Postscript: what happened to AT&T? The breakup of their telephone subsidiary network was enforced from 1984, but they remain contenders for technical leadership in the Internet age. AT&T tried to reintegrate computing and communications in 1991, by acquiring computer-maker NCR Corp. They merged with the largest US cellular provider in 1994, McCaw Cellular Communications, and split into three companies in 1995: AT&T; Lucent Technologies; NCR (renamed AT&T Global Information Solutions, including Teradata). "Bell Labs then-parent company, AT&T, create[d] independent Lucent Technologies with Bell Labs as its R&D [research and development] arm, and remove[d] itself from the computer business by divesting itself of NCR" in 1996. Lucent pioneered the high-speed 56K v90 flex modems, remain major sellers of telecoms hardware, and still employ Dennis Ritchie. Not surprisingly, their Agere internal modems are about the easiest available to drive under GNU/Linux. In 1995 Ritchie oversaw creation of Plan 9, whose "distributed features" facilitate, with characteristic prescience, 9grid. Also, the OS programming output survives as Inferno for small devices. As distributors, "Vita Nuova is a privately held company with headquarters in York, England." Linus Torvalds: "when I want to get new and interesting ideas I usually turn to more radical systems like Plan-9 or Inferno". [The Pragmatist of Free Software hotwired interview Hiroo Yamagata 1997]. DEC was bought by Compaq Computer Corporation in 1998. In 1999 AT&T acquired Telecommunications Inc. (TCI), the second largest US cable company. This later became AT&T Broadband. There was in "1998.. [an] ambitious plan to forge Ma Bell's many specialized networks into a single, more efficient system based on Internet technology. That way, it could provide everything from Web-hosting to videoconferencing to Net-based calling, without duplicative spending on the underlying networking gear. The result: AT&T's network now handles more Net traffic than any other -- some 1.8 petabytes of digital fare a day". businessweek 20Dec04. In January 2005 SBC Communications Inc paid US$16B (NZ$22B) to aquire AT&T, for their business client base and long-distance network, as the buyer looked beyond the home user market. This "vaulted" the agglomerate past then market leader Verizon, as "the nation's largest telecommunications company". (SBC, AT&T talking Baby Bell reunion, Chicago Tribune, 28Jan05.) Stock markets lifted instantly on the news; the permanent, competitive quest for profitabilty drives cumulative capital on, turning full circles, unconsciously seeking original AT&T scale of market dominance. Verizon immediately hit back: "customers want to have simplified delivery, one-stop shopping and a single point of contact..offer[ing] broadband technologies". Verizon sweeps up MCI in $6.7 billion deal. Ethics get compromised at this level of business survival: "Verizon itself was formed through a $53 billion merger, completed in June 2000, between Bell Atlantic and GTE, both of which were created after the government-ordered breakup of the old AT&T in 1984. WorldCom Inc. merged with the original MCI Communications Corp. in September 1998 in a $37 billion deal that, at the time, was the largest corporate merger in U.S. history. The deal created MCI WorldCom Inc. Verizon went on to riches and in 2004 had $67.8 billion in annual revenue, making it the world?s largest telecom company. Verizon, which started as a local phone service carrier, has focused in recent months on enterprise telecom services and on delivering fiber-to-the-premises service to some customers. Verizon's fiber deployment will allow it to offer television services that compete with cable TV. MCI WorldCom's fate would be very different. A massive accounting scandal enveloped the company after an internal audit in June 2002 uncovered US $3.8 billion in accounting errors. In July 2002, WorldCom declared bankruptcy, and the accounting misstatements eventually reached a total of $11 billion. In March 2004, a month before the newly renamed MCI emerged from bankruptcy, the company issued a report reducing pretax income for 2000 and 2001 by $74.4 billion. Ebbers' trial began in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in January 2005", and now "U.S. lawmakers question telecom mergers". Republicans especially defend an effective "emergence of a duopoly." Since 2002, Microsoft has been preparing for battle on the media frontier, when "Verizon Online and MSN join[ed] forces to offer consumers DSL Internet access and unique online services"; plus "Microsoft and Verizon Wireless form groundbreaking alliance to offer superior wireless data services and applications to consumers and enterprise customers". Exclusive foundations are laid where "Verizon Selects Microsoft TV as Software Platform for FiOS TV Service" [prdomain.com; MS 28Jan2005]. Before the company declared bankruptcy, WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers resigned in April 2002, amid questions about more than $360 million in personal loans he received from the company. In March 2004, Ebbers was charged in federal court in New York with conspiracy and securities fraud. Scott D. Sullivan, WorldCom's former chief financial officer, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. General Electric became the world's largest company in capital. An conglomerate of industrial, media, and financial interests, GE is now the bell-weather stock by which the entire US economy - and therefore the world - reads its health status. Remaining in business is ever more capital intensive, mechanised, and driven by information flow. Supply chain innovations like RFID amplify the aquisitional trend, as seen when a Teradata Survey Finds Data Is Driving Technology Investments. Contest for supermarket shelf space and streamlined stocking imply a unified channel of provision, seen in both accelerating airline mergers and creation of "the world's largest consumer products company" from Proctor & Gamble and Gillette. [The Press 29Jan05 p.C8; more on RFIDs: Technology Friend or Foe? informit 01Apr05]. Verisoft and Symantec have merged - security remains the nexus of computing evolution. The UK government has a "Raft of initiatives [that] explore non-proprietary routes to better IT security". Where Microsoft's might makes us insecure: "Everyone in the industry knows the world's chronic dependence on Microsoft products is one day going to cause catastrophe, yet many people who know about security are likely to be reluctant to speak out." [RadioNZ business news 27Jun05; Government looks into Open Source Security eGov monitor, Knowledge Asset Management 24Jun2005; Guardian 5Oct2003; + SGI Teams with IBM to Help Customers Improve Security and Solve Identity Conflicts 30Jun2005]. These examples show that the dynamic of capital accumulation influences today as it did the production of Unix, even moreso. In essence it was the interaction of AT&T specifically, with three other agencies, that resulted in Unix and free OS software: state-funded research; commercially-produced computers; and the academic sector. This came from AT&T's special situation as giant, regulated telecommunication monopoly, which made them both sponsor and beneficiary of public research capacities. BSD, Usenet, and the Internet by which you read these lines, was the chief integrated result. Only by examining the interplay of this precise set of forces today, may we begin to understand free software, the Internet, and their combined future. Microsoft have replaced AT&T, and dominate the two areas standing since the exit of the state from computer research; a partial monopoly, but on a greatly expanded install base from which to gather combat revenue. |
One current possibility: Bsd/Gnu/Linux/open-source (BGLOS) combine development energies to complete the public Not-Unix software asset, securing FreeNix for all posterity (see Chart 1 below). The head-to-head battle with MS may not prove to be so difficult, and is very well flagged: "The best and brightest programmers and developers want to work for the most innovative companies like Google. If Microsoft isn't viewed as innovative it loses out on talent, which may focus on rival products such as Linux. 'Psychologically, Longhorn is very important,' says Werbach. 'If it succeeds, Microsoft continues to grow and attract the best talent. If Longhorn only maintains Microsoft's past glory, it may affect the company over the next five years.'" But what MS cannot win in the computer lab, it may do by patent court. Which explains the pressing economic need for conscious freenix coalition. [Microsoft's "Longhorn" Operating System: Sure Hit or Longshot? informit 24Jun2005; Freenix Wikipedia & FREENIX Sessions USENIX conf]. MS meet RedHat: "Bill Gates acknowledged the company is interested in talking to open source players. 'There are some of those [open source] players that are looking at commercial-type revenues. We'll certainly spend time with those people to see what we have in common and what we can do for customers together'". [Microsoft keeps its open source enemies close ZDNet UK 30June2005]. "This week.. AMD filed a lawsuit against Intel in the US courts accusing the chipmaker of anticompetitive practices.. that Intel has misused its 90 percent market share to lock it out of the business". [AMD vs Intel: The chips are down ZDNet UK 29Jun2005]. Chart 1 appears synchronous with a weather cycle. 2005 has seen the crisis-tipping Hurricane Katrina (the most deadly and destructive accident in US history since 1900, when around 7,000 died in the first Galveston storm). The previous manifestation of New Orleans cyclone was two score ago, in 1965: Hurricane Betsy broke the US hurricane damage record. 'Billion Dollar Betsy' was preceded by the Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak of April 1965, and 2004 also saw a US tornado statistical peak. There are intermedial lows to this 20-year storm cycle, with few damaging hurricanes in the US 1970-71, 1973, 1976-78, and from 1980 until Hurricane Alicia hit Texas in 1983. 1984 was calm, but 1985 was bad - in Biloxi, for Gulf of Mexico oil, and unusually, up the east coast. 1986-1988 were quiet. A second, ten-year cycle runs through 1969 Hurricane Camille "the second-strongest storm ever to make landfall", 1979 Hurricane Frederic "the most expensive storm to hit the US until..", 1989 Hurricane Hugo "the costliest hurricane in US history.. exceeded in 1992 by Hurricane Andrew", 1999 Hurricane Floyd "the deadliest United States hurricane since 1972 [Agnes]", to 2009. 1995 was "the second most active season on record", after 1933. Third is 2004. The most intense Atlantic hurricane to make US landfall, since measurements began, was on Labor Day of 1935. Next, in order, were Camille, Katrina, and Andrew. [Is Global Warming Fueling Katrina? Time 29Aug2005; tracks of Betsy & Katrina note storm numbers doubling; Atlantic hurricanes Wikipedia; Katrina's big imprint on economy Christian Science Monitor 01Sept2005]. 2005's storm season severity was clearly predictable, and also delivered Rita, Stan and Wilma. Equally extreme was Asia's typhoon season. The sad fact is, open shallowness has left the democratic world unprepared for the disaster now rapidly and tragically unfolding around it. Hegemonic conservative ideology denied the importance of cycles: of, and affecting, capital accumulaton. The role of cheap, abundant energy - driving technology and forestalling social revolution - wrote the history of the Twentieth Century. But that role is now under pressure, tending towards over. The bubble has burst, hideously in Bagdhad and Biloxi, as the excess energy loaded inefficiently into the hydrologic cycle washes back onto land with equivalent violence. Expect impact upon inflation, house prices, and prosperity. Through globalisation, the coming crash will be ten times the severity of the 1930s Great Depression, at least. The conservative ideology is out of growth capacity - including for 'Open Source' commercial products - out of ideas, and out of potential for peaceful reinvigoration. Hope survives, in that freedom can once again be honestly defined, to fill the theoretical void, prevent World War III, and 'save the world': from - but with - humanity. Tom Adelstein has set a warning in Following Bill Gates Linux Attack Money: Slush Funds, Litigation for FOSS Advocates; "Many of us wonder when the tactics of Microsoft might get them into a situation in which they can't buy their way out. As of the first day of 2006, that hasn't seemed to happen. I simply wonder if the FOSS community needs to keep their eye on the ball, take some action or we might otherwise lose GNU/Linux. Perhaps that's beyond some people's reality. I just don't know if Linux is in the 'can't fail situation so many people seem to believe. Maybe it is. I'm just not willing to ignore the risk." [LXer.com 2Jan2006] [Draft 03Jan06 - to be cont'd..] Campaign launch 07Feb2005:
"if the EU allows software patents, then that's the beginning of the end for Linux. Not only for Linux. It's just a prominent example"No Software Patents! Bruce Perens On SYS-CON.TV LinuxWorld 15August2005 Software Patents: "Programmers & Consumers Should Gather Forces," Says Richard Stallman LinuxWorld 02August2005 How SW Patents Endanger FOSS groklaw 30Jun2005 Patent injustice for small software companies ZDNet UK 29Jun2005 Patent absurdity RMS Guardian Unlimited online UK 20Jun05 + The Danger of Software Patents speech India + Saving Europe from Software Patents The argument against software patents OSNews 19Apr05 Gates up to old tricks over intellectual property rights nzherald 15Mar05 Microsoft Calls for Reforms to the U.S. Patent System MS 10Mar05 So, *Now* How Do You Feel About Software Patents? "FT.com has the jaw-dropping story about European futures exchanges, brokers and traders preparing for patent infringement claims from Trading Technologies.. 2 1/2 cents for each side of a trade, which would amount to revenue of about $130 million annually" Groklaw 24Feb05 EU Patent directive deadlocked ZDNet UK 23Feb05 FreePatentsOnline.com search The Economic Majority Against Software Patents & Software Patents vs Parliamentary Democracy - Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure ffii.org EU * * * * * Thoughts on Copyright and Patents "I write software for a living.." netjeff.com * * * The Importance of... "Ernest Miller pursues research and writing on cyberlaw, intellectual property, and First Amendment issues" blog |
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seed |
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MULTICS |
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GNU-GPL |
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FreeNix! |