This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by James Robertson. Original Post: Re: Innovation is not a threat to GNU/linux Feed Title: Michael Lucas-Smith Feed URL: http://www.michaellucassmith.com/site.atom Feed Description: Smalltalk and my misinterpretations of life Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by James Robertson Latest Posts From Michael Lucas-Smith

It seems that Jonathan Swartz has trumped himself. He says don't talk about a distro when you say Linux. But as the title of his post points out: he himself is talking about GNU/Linux - which is far more than a kernel.

Swartz then goes on to rant about how innovation isn't a threat to "Linux". I'm sorry Jonathan, but you're wrong. It's a big threat to Linux. Take Apple's new file system indexing/searching facilities. Not only is it pervasive and has a common API and it used by the majority of Apple programs now - but it is well supported in their common shell.

Linux not only has multiple distributions but it also has multiple "shells" - not just GUI ones either. If Linux were to implement such a file system, every shell and GUI and distribution would have to play catch up to that innovation itself. Face it, Linux is a fat beast by its nature (mirrored by its monolithic kernel design) and cannot by the distributed and decentralised nature of its development team, compete to a light weight development team centralised in a company.

Linux has never been and will never be a place of innovation. It is the stable safe course, it is the "others did this 5 years ago, it must be safe to do it now". If you want bleeding edge design and innovation, look to small companies. Sometimes small companies get gobbled in to big companies and the innovation reaches a larger audience.

The faster there is a feedback between small companies and larger audiences, the quicker Linux becomes obsolete. Believe it or not, if Microsoft had a clue stick - they could make Windows absolutely amazing. Just take a look at Apple. Now - if Apple had a clue stick and stopped with their stubborn design of a single button mouse and dodgy keyboard keys and weird keyboard combinations (I thought they said Apple was /easy/ ?) then Apple would have an even larger market share right now.