Google and OpenSource
I had the pleasure of listening to Chris DiBona (Google OpenSource Manager) a while ago, and he told a lot about how they work and how they roll out whole datacenters of simple off-the-shelf Linux machines in just hours. Mighty impressive
so I guess, if you do a search on Google, it may be likely that you have a machine all to yourself at that instant.
OpenSource is not about price, it's not about saving money, it's about buying yourself business advantages, with OpenSource you get a whole bunch of advantages that's not possible with "closed" software
If you want sth new or some new functionality in Windows or other Microsoft products like MS Sql Server.... you will have to wait till next release, what if this is so important for the business that you can't wait, you may then be out of business....
With OpenSource you get the following immediate advantages
- Sourcecode is readily available, this means you can yourself set developers to make change and make this specific function within a short timeframe.
- Support base is wider, with lots of developers around, in general, support is easier
- There is no one with the power to restrict how the software is used
- There is no single entity on which the future of the software depends
- The availability of the source code and the right to modify it
- The right to redistribute modifications and improvements to the code, and to reuse other open source code
- The right to use the software in any way
So OpenSource is about keeping control yourself and on your business and not let the control slip away to a third party.
http://sites.google.com/a/dibona.com/dibona-wiki/Home
(Wow, his hair is even longer now.............)
Chris said that they'd never release a new or custom Operating system or a new Web server or anything like this, they will rather do contributions to make the existing platforms even better, and Google is a major contributor to improvements in OpenSource projects all around......