If patriotism gets in the way of reason there's something wrong. I mean `the american way' is often over emphasized and too many americans seem to think that being american is somewhat better than being open minded.

You americans really have to drop that `american way - the only way' -bullshit if you really want to support the FOSS way.

Patriotism sucks, just like all the other isms do..

- Voice of Ambience -

jon,

It is true that open source != Free(libre), but generally open source == free(gratis). As a side note, Free(gratis) is a subset of open source.

Just a bunch of circular logic dogmas. "God exists because God is almighty" comes to mind.

>>Some of you (cough-BartB-cough) are just Jew-hating primates.

You are confusing anti-zionism with anti-semitism. There is a big difference.

>>He's pointing out a positive aspect of a negative phenomenon

It's only negative if you are an American.

>>Seeing as the majority of the Spanish voting public have recently proven themselves to be terror-appeasing cowards, one can hardly blame them.

Or maybe the real reason is they were fed up with being lied to, never wanted to go to war in the first place, or a plethora of other reasons. 90% of the population opposed the war from the outset. The government attempted to cover up the fact that al qaeda was involved for political reasons and blamed the bombings on the seperatists. When people found out the truth they more than a little upset.

Can you explain to me how the new party in power appeases terrorism in any way? Their number one stated goal was to combat terrorism.

#12 reason why open source will grow is "it's free". I think he has this confused with something else. Open source != free software.

Free software can be sold and is sold. It has been sold in the past. It's free as in freedom. Didn't we all learn this years ago? The source must be included with any binaries distibuted, that's it. You don't have to put up a server for the source code or the binaries if you don't want to. You just have to make sure that access to the source code is included with the binaries.

------------------------------------------------------------

For those that don't have a clue about the internet, the web is open source. 70% of webservers run Linux, which is free software, and most of those are running Apache, which is also free software.

Open Source is anti-monopoly, anti-capitalism and anti-"American Dream of get rich fast".
Try a little harder, like working, get it?

Bu-u-uuuuuuu... poor child.

This anti-American thing: you don't have to be anti-American to recognise that anti-Americanism is a strong force in other parts of the world. I'm writing this in France, where Linux not being part of corporate America is a big selling point in some circles. It doesn't make a lot of sense, it doesn't have to make a lot of sense...

> Now once I had picked a side I then had to look at the
> consequences and since supporters of Open Source are
> anti-American, I cannot support Open Source.

Incorrect supposition. Supporters of Open Source are not necessarily anti-American. You also had a false dichotomy in there.

BTW, patriotism is just nationalism although many chowderheads deny this simple, obvious fact. I'm simply anti-government. Why am I anti-government? I live in a nation with barely any social welfare at all, yet somehow, this government has rung up debt of 7 million million dollars. How was this accomplished and where did the money go? A bunch of theives stole it. If every man, woman, and child on earth donated a $1,000 to the US government, we'd still be in debt by a million million dollars - one trillion bucks - don't blame foreign aid because we haven't spent that much money on forein nations. We're going insolvent soon enough, and that is going to have serious consequences for US citizens, especially the little people, the rich will flee the country.

In response to Joe Holloway,

Things really aren't that black and white - you -don't- have to choose a 'side' as you have so eloquently proven in your little monologue. Grey does exist and you've chosen it with your second emotional response ;-)

Intel is proprietary. It is just that until now Intel has failed to amass enough patents and copyrights to enforce exclusiveness, and moreover has failed to pull the rug from its former partners like VIA and AMD.

As soon as Intel manages to go 64 bits, either with Itanium (totally proprietary) or without it, they will renew their attempts at exclusion.

Actually RISC is less proprietary. They all use OpenFirmware, have several sources, and SPARC is even an open standard with free software implementations like the LEO. MIPS too have independent implementations, like the Chinese Dragon. The PowerPC for one is finally getting the volumes (Mac OS, GNU/Linux PPC, AmigaOne, Pegasos) to go after Intel in availability and price.

> "Open source benefits from anti-American sentiments."

Comments like this confuse me. Is the intent to increase support for Open Source or is it to split the Open Source community into America vs. the World?

My initial reaction was an emotional one and was anti-Open Source.

I am in favor of Open Source and firmly believe that Open Source is tied to freedom and liberty in this time. However, being a proud American, I am pro-America. I do not believe that these two positions contradict each other. In fact, I believe that being pro-America and the American way of freedom and liberty fits very well into my pro-Open Source belief system.

Here was my completely emotional but yet initial response. That line shocked me and forced me to pick a side. Are you anti-American or pro-American. There are only 2 choices in that line and you have to pick a side. You can't be both. Now once I had picked a side I then had to look at the consequences and since supporters of Open Source are anti-American, I cannot support Open Source.

Now you can make fun at the logic. You can make fun of my patriotism. You can make fun of all of me (I'm probably funny looking too) but you must realize that this was an emotional response. "My mind's made up don't confuse me with facts". The response was brought out and must be dealt with.

Luckily for me, a second emotional response kicked in. I am pro-liberty. I am pro-freedom. My pro-Open Source position is tied to thoese two beliefs making the position stronger than normal (but not as strong as my pro-America position). The second emotional response was to question the "pro-Open Source means anti-America" impression that the statement gave me. That done I was able to return to my pro-Open Source stance. It must be the statement about Open Source and anti-American sentiment that must be false. That being "proven" (remember we are talking emotions not logic, belief is enough of a proof for emotions) I can go back to my support of both. However Marc's credibility must be sacrificed so that I can continue to believe.

If I was not a strong supporter of Open Source before. This would have thrown enough negative emotions around the Open Source idea that I would be hard-pressed to ever even consider it. Emotions are a tricky thing.

"Open source benefits from anti-American sentiment."

Some of you are taking this line a bit too seriously. Some of you (cough-BartB-cough) are just Jew-hating primates.

The guy is just making a wry joke- at the risk of spoiling the subtleties of self-deprecating humor, I'll explain:

"Open source benefits from anti-American sentiment." And lucky for us, there's plenty of anti-American sentiment to keep it going! Woohoo!! He's pointing out a positive aspect of a negative phenomenon. Can you see the irony?

PS: We never gave Puerto Rico back to Spain after 1898, but the last popular referendum they held in PR was inconclusive- the citizens freely chose to stay in their existing semi-colonial relationship with the good ol' US of A. Seeing as the majority of the Spanish voting public have recently proven themselves to be terror-appeasing cowards, one can hardly blame them.

Linux and opensource are Free as in Freedom, not price.
You may be paying a lot for GNU/Linux, but you are paying for the support and services, not for the software itself. Free software can't be sold.

Open source will succeed if and only if can do the same things that closed source propietary software can at lower cost. It's not an issue of politics or thriving off of anti-American sentiment, it's simply an issue fo whether or not it's a worthwhile investment for your PHB. Let's stop with this BS about all the ideological reasons why open source WILL succeed, and start coming up with ways to better its chances of actually SUCCEEDING.

You can't pontificate the future of open source, you can simply dangle the carrot of success by figuring out ways to make it more appealing to the largest number of people.

I think this is a BS argument. Why pontificate as to why open source WILL succeed when it's success, while notable, is only marginal in the market at the moment. Read more here.

A more substantial reasoning - in 10 reasons:

Some more good reasons:
13. Is just another name for the scientific method. Standing on shoulders of giants; allows other interested/independent parties to examine/improve on the work, and all that.

14. Widespread adoption in academia - one of the leading engines of innovation.

15. Allows other companies/parties/countries to compete with the entrenched Monopolist. Right now, MS has been legally identified as a monopolist - which by its very nature is "anti-capitalistic" since it doesn't allow prospective competitors a decent chance in succeeding in the market coz of concocted, artificial barriers that it has erected (e.g. embedded software that has nothing to do with the OS, one-sided license agreements, requiring HW vendors to bundle in OS to get discount, closed file-formats, etc.)

16. Commoditization Wave. Inasmuch as the invisible hand of Adam Smith is a force of nature, so is the inevitable commoditization of the operating system and common productivity apps.

But actually Microsoft doesn't beat Linux "hands down" for basic office productivity. A box running Fedora and OpenOffice is all you need in many settings. As far as ease of us goes Linux is extremely easy to install these days. You sound like someone who has never used Linux but has this picture in his mind of what Linux was like 5 years ago. Times change and so has Linux. There are even distro like Lindows that are specifically built for clueless home users. Sorry but your comments are outdated and ignorant of what Linux is like today. It's certainly not for every home user but it sure it heck is useful for general Office use. The ONLY limiting factor is oem support. But that's not a technical problem that's a chicken and the egg problem.

It has always struck me as strange when people using another operating system "invade" the forms of another to preach. You used to see this a lot in Windows newsgroups with Linux users posting, and now we see it even more in the reverse. I really would think that people would have something better to do with their time.

As for the stance on US international policy I think that too many people here having been watching Fox news (maybe CNN), and need to remember that news is often distorted one way or another to benefits those who report it. Pick up multiple history books by different authors with different prospectives, and maybe attend a couple of 300/400+ level political science classes before you make your conclusions.

Really funny!!

* "The Internet is powered by open source." - Really so Cisco routers are open source? How about the telecom switches? Thats a really broad statement and it's mostly incorrect.
--
He was talking about software, not hardware. And when it comes to internet infrastructure software, such as bind, whois, apache, and sendmail, it is open source.

"The Internet is the carrier for open source."
The Internet is a carrier for anything that anyone wants to put on it. Which is usually Porn and Shopping.
--
Your search results reflect your search input.

"Open source benefits from anti-American sentiments."
What are you smoking?
-
He's smoking your ass, that's what he's smoking. And doing a good job of it, I might add.

"Incentives around open source include the respect of one's peers."
So all it takes to become your peer is to use open source?? LOL
--
He's talking about writing quality, free software, something which you obviously know nothing about.

"Servers have always been expensive and proprietary, but Linux runs on Intel."
Microsoft Windows also runs on Intel. So what is your point?
--
He was referring to a server operating system that somebody would _actually consider using_ on an internet facing server.

"Companies are increasingly supporting Linux."
Ok name 10 from the current Fortune 500 and how they are "supporting" Linux.
--

IBM - contributing to linux code

HP - contributing to linux code

SUN Microsystems - contributing to linux code, own linux distribution, etc

Silicon Graphics - opengl, altix servers, linux enhancements, etc

Oracle - linux versions of oracle, entire data center oracle

Wal-Mart - selling PCs loaded with mandrake, as an option

Ford Motor Company - migrated entire operations to Linux

Computer Associates - influencing Fortune 1000 companies to use linux

Those are just the ones I can think of right off the top of my head. Time to get on to more important things, like cooking some food.

--
mike

>"The Internet is powered by open source." - Really so Cisco routers are open source?
>How about the telecom switches? Thats a really broad statement and it's mostly >incorrect.

No, but they are only implementing open standards remember all the RFCs.

>"The Internet is the carrier for open source."
>The Internet is a carrier for anything that anyone wants to put on it. Which is usually
>Porn and Shopping.

If you want to see the porn it is your choice. All opensource programs are available over the net.

>"It's simply going to be more secure than proprietary software."
>As long as the Admins are smart this will be true.

If you look at known not fixed bugs M$ rulez all systems out. Have you heard of a secure flaw in open source which stood open for longer than a month?

>"Open source benefits from anti-American sentiments."
>What are you smoking?

Well, what about china. They are using open source because they can look at a clean source and can compile the software themselves.

>"Incentives around open source include the respect of one's peers."
>So all it takes to become your peer is to use open source?? LOL

That was meant for developers or companies help developing open source.

>"Open source means standing on the shoulders of giants."
>These would be the same giants that did...? Did they build a multi billion dollar
>company? Did they make PC's easy for everyone to use? You seem to forget Money=Power.

Why is Linux the hardest competitor of Windows?

>"Servers have always been expensive and proprietary, but Linux runs on Intel."
>Microsoft Windows also runs on Intel. So what is your point?

That is directed to the big irons have you ever seen a well performing 64CPU Windows machine?

>"There are an increasing number of companies developing software that aren't software
>companies."
>Yes that is true. Just like it has always been since the begining of computing.

Now they develope software to run on their own linux systems.

>"Companies are increasingly supporting Linux."
>Ok name 10 from the current Fortune 500 and how they are "supporting" Linux.

DaimlerChrysler, Shell, GE, GM, Allianz Group, IBM, Novell, Procter & Gamble, HP
Think before you write...

Truth said:
-----------------------------------
"Companies are increasingly supporting Linux."
Ok name 10 from the current Fortune 500 and how they are "supporting" Linux.
------------------------------------

ok,
1 Walmart - Selling a Walmart exclusive line of Linux PCs targeted at home users.
2 IBM - One of Linux's biggest supporters, contributed lots of code to the kernel and to userland programs, ported Linux to it's mainframe machines, and is currently fighting SCO in court over the licencing of Linux.
3 HP - All recent HP servers are designed to be Linux compatible. They also sell Linux support contracts for HP machines, and Linux can be pre-installed at the factory. According to their website 1 in 7 HP servers runs linux.
4 Lucent's Bell Labs produces Linux based software
5 Motorola - Advanced High Availability Services for Linux
6 Intel - creates hardware and software compatible with Linux. (Intel's compilers are the most popular next to GNU's)
7 Ingram Micro - assists customers to trasition from Unix to Linux and offers training and support.
8 Dell - officially supports Red Hat Linux on their servers, and offers a community website for info and support of other distros.
9 Cisco Systems - subsidiary Linksys bases all of their router products on Linux and has contributed source code.
10 Microsoft - (yes I said Microsoft) offers Windows Services for UNIX, a set of programs for making a Windows server interoperate with a Unix/Linux network.
10b. (in case you don't want to count Microsoft) Sun Microsystems - promotes Linux as a low cost alternative to their own Solaris based machines for small businesses. Contibutes Chilisoft ASP which allows Linux/unix machines to host Microsoft ASP based web content.

...not to mention Fortune 500's like Ford, Lockheed Martin and Home Depot that are using Linux extensively. (I was only counting those who contrbute something major, not just users of Linux)

Some comments if I may:

1. FreeBSD and NetBSD are both decent candidates for the server market, and both run on Intel. The whole cross-platform "battle" was settled ages ago. It's not a reason to use Linux.

2. It still remains to be seen whether or not an open source product WILL be more secure than a proprietary one. Certainly peer review makes finding holes all that much easier, but it takes programmers with a security mindset to make it secure from the start and keep it that way.

3. I don't see how anti-American sentiments have anything to do with open source, except maybe being pissed at America's crypto export laws.

4. What exactly is he talking about with the whole giants' shoulders thing?

5. FreeBSD, NetBSD, and a wide range of other operating systems run on Intel. It's just not a great reason to use Intel. Hell, even Solaris runs on x86's now. Sheesh.

6. He really should have specified what kind of "free" he liked more - the beer or the freedom?

Do we have to explain it all? Come on... Well, I guess so.

"The Internet is powered by open source." means the protocols running the internet are all open [-source] : tcp-ip, ftp, http, etc. We're not talking hardware here, mind you.

"The Internet is the carrier for open source."
Does not means it does not carry anything else. Means that open source is carried mainly by internet. _the_ carrier.

"It's simply going to be more secure than proprietary software."
Given the same admins and flaws, there are more people who can fix them in open source software than closed source. Because everyone can see them in open source.

"Open source benefits from anti-American sentiments."
People who won't buy American software (for whatever reason) would get Open Source software instead if they could, because it is not american. And there is quite a chance it is free, also. Why would we enrich americans when we could get things for free, they'd say. Please note, you could replace "americans" by any country citizens name, same result.

"Incentives around open source include the respect of one's peers."
>>So all it takes to become your peer is to use open source?
The important word is respect, not peers. And we're not talking using it, but making it. You get respected by other people when you open your source, just like someone who shows his work (whatever) to anyone for review and criticism gets more respect than someone who packages it in an unopenable box and tells you to press this and this button to make it work.

Open source means standing on the shoulders of giants."
>>Did they build a multi billion dollar company?
They built the internet. They built science. They build politics.
>>Did they make PC's easy for everyone to use?
Blame Microsoft and closed source.
>>You seem to forget Money=Power.
That, precisely, the point of open source. It is a civilized act (as the opposite of "the stronger wins all") of giving power to others, and maybe gaining power from them.

"Servers have always been expensive and proprietary, but Linux runs on Intel."
..means Servers can now (notice the "but", and the past in "have been"?) be cheap and un-proprietary, Linux being given as an example.

"There are an increasing number of companies developing software that aren't software companies."
..meaning there are more and more. The important word is "increasin", and it's supposed to mean that the share of non-software companies is increasing in software.

"Companies are increasingly supporting Linux."
..meaning using, and promoting for use.
Can you spot the difference between this sentence and "Linux increases the wealth of companies"?

"things that sound true but aren't."

Most of these claims are based on folklore, and don't stand up to scrutiny.

Example: Opensource is "free."
"free" as in "speech"? Try criticizing your employer some time?

"free" as in "beer"? Not hardly. You either pay for it with time, or you pay for it with smarts, but in the end, you pay for it. Closed source software costs $$$, but generally saves time, or requires less smarts. Any way you look at it, you end up paying for it.

I am all for competitive enterprise, but until Linux actually shows some sort of maturity regarding ease-of-use for the not-so-techno-savvy users amongst us, these types of broad comments are laughable. As "evil" (in the Linux community's eyes) as Microsoft is, it still beats Linux handsdown when it comes to basic office productivity.

# Uncle Jim commented on 22 March 2004:

* "What was the last country the U.S. invaded and KEPT after the war? Hmmmmmmm...."

The answer is: Israel

The US supports the state of Israel. The most racist state
of the developed world. As your president said: "You are
with us or against us". The US is with zionists and as such
you are against the free and democratic world.

But to be honest, I don't think we will understand each
other on this issue... I won't even try ;-)

Oh, just one pitch: Israel probably has WMD and certainly
did not accept the NPT. This looks like a very clear bias
to me?

Those "terrorists" are actually just "freedom fighters"??!
But you won't understand this, unless you are willing to
understand it.

Yeah, America is Imperialistic. So what? You might just as well say self-serving. So what? We've always been like that. America was founded on taking what it wants, what it believes it has some inalienable right too (for example, North America). And essentially most any country is like that. However the degree to which a country exercises such desires is hemed in by its ability to do so. Iraq invaded Kuwait. We kicked them out. We invaded Iraq. We'll leave, but hopefully we'll leave something behind more agreeable to our sensibilities (though that remains far from certain).

Anti-Americanism is natural. It could be Anti-Whatever-Countery-Is-Far-Away-In-The-Lead. Envy. It is the big motivator.

Does open source benefit from that? If it does, the effect probably washes out over time.

-- David

I think opensource is good but I always laugh when someone say's Linux is free without qualifying the statement. Yes its free for anyone wishing to run a workstation or a small departmental server without support, but Intel x86 Redhat Enterprise Linux AS pricing starts at $1499.99 and ends at $18,000.00 for an IBM zSeries or S/370. This is far from free. Furthermore, if you're going to run an enterprise level version of Oracle you'll be running it on a distribution which is certified and supported by oracle which means you'll pay for the OS and then pay for Oracle. So much for free... Also Novell is looking to create a suite of proprietary directory and systems management software to run on SUSE Linux. Think that will be free?

One last comment, I don't think Linux is more secure than any other OS, what makes you think when joe average home user (who was too lazy to update his MS computer) switches to linux, that he will be a good boy and keep his computer updated? I doubt it. No os can protect an unqualified user from dangerous behavior or poorly configuring their workstation (which I think is a major problem with MS users). As Linux grows on the desktop, it WILL become a target of virus writers.

I never said we were imperialists. I only said that the foreign perception of us, particularly in 3rd world countries, is that we are, either directly through the military and the fact that many believe (in spite of their lack of support for the iraq war) that we control the UN exclusively and the rest of the UN are our puppets; or indirectly in that our corporations and their growing globalism (the kind of stuff protested at the IMF meetings every year) seem to make American icons unavoidable to the detriment of their own cultures and cultural icons.

"The Internet is powered by open source." - Really so Cisco routers are open source? How about the telecom switches? Thats a really broad statement and it's mostly incorrect.

"The Internet is the carrier for open source."
The Internet is a carrier for anything that anyone wants to put on it. Which is usually Porn and Shopping.

"It's simply going to be more secure than proprietary software."
As long as the Admins are smart this will be true.

"Open source benefits from anti-American sentiments."
What are you smoking?

"Incentives around open source include the respect of one's peers."
So all it takes to become your peer is to use open source?? LOL

"Open source means standing on the shoulders of giants."
These would be the same giants that did...? Did they build a multi billion dollar company? Did they make PC's easy for everyone to use? You seem to forget Money=Power.

"Servers have always been expensive and proprietary, but Linux runs on Intel."
Microsoft Windows also runs on Intel. So what is your point?

"There are an increasing number of companies developing software that aren't software companies."
Yes that is true. Just like it has always been since the begining of computing.

"Companies are increasingly supporting Linux."
Ok name 10 from the current Fortune 500 and how they are "supporting" Linux.

"What was the last country the U.S. invaded and KEPT after the war? Hmmmmmmm...."

Dude, you are off topic. But since you are showing a limited view of history, here is a refresher course.

The U.S. doesn't invade and keep ruling after a war. Except in Iraq. It costs too much money. Instead we make sure that we can have a presence in a country forever. We don't rule Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Germany, Cuba, etc, but we have military bases that cannot be removed and land that we consider to be OURS. The U.S. has taken on the role of "Older Brother to the World" and we do what we want, where we want. Even Pat Buchanan said that the war on Iraq was a war of Imperialism. But who can trust a liberal like him?

But at least we aren't Imperialists.

we need articles like this. Marc Andreessen was once a name that some non-Techs even recognized. Quotes like these make conversion/assimilation easier

JustMe,
I imagine there are people in Cuba, Hawaii, VietNam, Latin America that would laugh at your ignorance. It's one thing to say that America hasn't been an imperialist country. America is Imperialist not because American's think so, but because people in these countries think so. Did the USSR keep Poland? Romania? East Germany? Try to think for yourself in the future rather than listen to CNN or FOX news.

Half a dozen reasons why it won't boom:

1. Counter-consumer product learning curve.
2. No support/random support/indifferent support/BOFH-attitude (anti)support.
3. Many big-time OSS programs (OpenOffice.Org, e.g.) still contain bush-league bugs.
4. Lack of self-sustaining investment model.
5. Random sales model.
6. It's only as secure as the mirror.

Marc makes a few interesting points, but they would have been more interesting 5 years ago. The "boom" has already happened.

When someone figures out how to make installation and use of 10 thousand ad-hoc programs as seamless and intuitive as an Apple- or Microsoft-developed application, and makes them seamlessly interoperable with commercial tools on more than 95% of available platforms, then we'll see some more booming in OSS.

Ridiculous. Compared to France, Germany, Spain, England, and the old U.S.S.R., the U.S. is hardly imperialist. Goodness people, why do you insist on feeding this ridiculous lie?

For a history of Imperialism see in the last 100 years:

France in Africa
England Everwhere Else

What was the last country the U.S. invaded and KEPT after the war? Hmmmmmmm....

"Anti-American does not mean anti-capitalist." -- The Anti-American sentiment in the world, which has been around since the Truman doctrine, is anti-imperialism, not anti-capitalism.

The feeling is that America continues to try to take over the world, and when its not happening through military action or diplomatic coersion of our allies, its happening by our corporations creating world-wide monopolies on products and services, "outsourcing" the workload and exploiting the natural resources of other countries while keeping the core of the money in the hands of the few at the top all here in the states.

I used to work for Netscape before AOL came along. Look what happened to them... and they were closed source. Except for their browser... and then only when it was too late. :)

Anti-American does not mean anti-capitalist. Capitalism was not even invented in America.

"Open source benefits from anti-American sentiments."

Sounds like a pinko-lefist-commi. Long Live Capitialism - I never got a job from a poor person!!!!!

Anyone who read BW last month knows that Andreessen "stands squarely in the middle of the offshore-outsourcing debate. The startup he now chairs, Opsware Inc., automates data centers, making it easier for companies to manage operations worldwide -- including offshore activities. At the same time, Opsware is now considering hiring a few people in India to take advantage of talent at lower wages there. Andreessen, an unrepentant believer in entrepreneurial capitalism, thinks new jobs and new industries will emerge in the U.S. that will more than fill the current jobs gap."

>"Open source means standing on the shoulders of giants."

Great quote. Reminds me of the seminal paper by Con Zymaris, "Shoulders of Giants -- A Paper on the Inevitability of Open Source Dominance" - 6 years old now, but still a gem

Here's a brief biography of Andreessen, beginning at the U of Illinois

hey Mr Off-Topic, surely you do realise that those very jobs were created by the dot-com boom? It was a bubble which was destined to burst. Don't blame the foreigners for faults in your own economic structure. You chose capitalism as your economy , and now you are seeing the ugly side of it.

Capitalism - just like any other socio-economical structure - has its own advantages and disadvantages.

But does Andreessen have anything useful to say about the thousands left unemployed by the dot-bomb debacle, or the devastating effect it had on silly-con valley? And do his well-respected insights acknowledge the sad fact that American computer companies gladly replaced American tech workers with foreigners in order to save literally only a few thousand dollars on taxes? Does he have anything to say about the evils of corporate greed or the neglect of human need that have long characterized the American economy?

Good to see he eats in his own kitchen. Opsware Inc is very Linux-friendly, it seems

Browsing is a mature concept now. It doesn't need to constantly change.. that'd make it hard on users. If Andreessen has ideas I'm sure people would listen.

he shoulda tried mozilla firebird and all the great plugins available for it, tabbed browsing, mouse gestures, popup blocking...and no spyware/adware, and it runs on windows and more platforms.

Talking of great Andreessen quotes, don't forget how he told Reuters back in mid-2003 that "browser innovation ended five years ago"