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On Sun, Jul 03, 2011 at 11:32:27AM -0400, Richard Guy Briggs wrote:
> I would have thought Apache would be an obvious example:
> http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2011/01/12/january-2011-web-server-survey-4.html
>
> > It's install base easily outnumbers all applications that i can think
> > of. For example, firefox uses it to manage some of it's data storage.
> > So every firefox install is an installation of sqlite. Many other
> > applications use sqlite for some form of data storage.
> >
Please see:
http://sqlite.org/mostdeployed.html http://sqlite.org/famous.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_quarter.svg#shared-image-desc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype#Usage_and_traffic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use
With that info:
For sheer size of userbase, sqlite is still the best example I can
think of. Perhaps ?? billions of active installations
For any other aspect, I'll happily conceed that many projects,
including apache, are much better examples than sqlite.
Getting back to the "myths" subject matter.. Of course, google will
bring up what it can find.
Some of the best "mythical" ideas come from the
idiotic^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hamazing quotes of certain "induhviduals"
quoting: (oops, I didn't note the source down.. sorry. I'm sure
google will help find it.)
---
"There's free software and then there's open source," he suggested,
noting that Microsoft gives away its software in developing countries.
With open source software, on the other hand, "there is this thing
called the GPL, which we disagree with." Open source, he said, creates
a license "so that nobody can ever improve the software," he claimed,
bemoaning the squandered opportunity for jobs and business. (Yes,
Linux fans, we're aware of how distorted this definition is.) He went
back to the analogy of pharmaceuticals: "I think if you invent drugs,
you should be able to charge for them," he said, adding with a shrug:
"That may seem radical."
---
or perhaps this gem:
--- ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/oct/19/jobs-transcript-tablets-ipad-iphone-android
)
""I think it's going to be a challenge for them to create a
competitive platform and to convince developers to create apps for yet
a third software platform after iOS and Android. With 300,000 apps on
Apple's App Store, RIM has a high mountain ahead of them to climb."
---
with android phones outnumbering iphones, and android apps running on
the playbook, I find his comments absurd. There has to be a myth or
two in these quotes.
As an extra kick, there is already at least one android market
exclusively for open source apps.
One myth(truth?) I'd like to see discussed somewhere if I could find
it would clear up questions about the ability to protect your rights
as an open source developer. It isn't always easy, but it is
certainly doable. Consider the 8 year US case on crypto restrictions
back in 1995-2003: http://cr.yp.to/export.html That case was a FLOSS
win, but how many losses are there? How many wins? Who pays for the
efforts in the legal battles?
One myth that does bug me is the idea that "open source is the only
way to go." Sometimes it just plain isn't the correct choice. I hate
to use a closed source solution to a problem, but if it works, it
works.
Another idea for more myths is to find a friend in germany to chat
with. Some time ago, the german government dropped their micosoft
software contract, they have achieved what many myths and "experts"
claimed is impossible. A complete gutting of their software
infrastructure. Perhaps, those claims NOT myths until _after_
germany's government made the leap into FLOSS. I don't know the
answer to this.
-phil
