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| Saturday, June 23, 2001 |
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The hard end of the software business 
| | Everything I just wrote below about Apple is more or less orthoganal to what's happening with the rest of the computing world, which is largely about generica. |
| | Linux is generic. So is the hardware it was born to run on. So is the Net. And the Web. Making generica for everybody is what they're all about. And none of it is inconsistent with or opposed to doing business. |
| | The deepest virtues of open source are all about making and sharing the best possible generic software, protocols and other infrastructural (or interstructural) building materials. Look beyond the moral and political stuff and that's what you find. |
| | Linux is a building material. Open source is a building method. And the software industry is turning into the new construction industry, where there's plenty of room for plenty of business, from commodity parts and methods to highly specialized prefab and proprietary parts and tools. There is no reason they can't all work together. Nor is there a reason interoperation won't benefit anyone in the long run. There's a context as inclusive as gravity here, and that's the Net. |
| | Craig tells us companies today need an open source strategy of some kind. Apple has one. For proof just look at what the hackers are doing with OS X. Microsoft has a strategy too; but it's about as conversational as a papal bull. |
| | [By the way: at the bottom of Microsoft's Shared Source page is this "GPL Analysis": |
| | This document was written for business decision makers and legal counsel who are trying to understand the implications of the GPL. The analysis is most relevent to technology companies, but has value for non-IT companies as well. (June 2001, download) |
| | The document is in Microsoft Word format. How's that for passive aggression?] |
| | Having an open source strategy isn't about signing up with The Movement. It's about how you involve your company in the relationships that build commodity infrastructure: what Craig (somewhere — I've gotta find the link) calls "terraforming" the new world we're building around the vast, empty, ownerless space we call the Net. |
The soft end of the hardware business
| | I'm writing this on the old laptop, which is now Joyce's new laptop. The way my friend Steve Chappell fixed it up, the thing just rocks. The Titanium rocks too (I've barely begun to test what it can do). |
| | But what really rocks is the company putting these things out. Mark these words: Apple is changing the game, big time, by making computing easy and fun again. |
| | Want proof? Look no farther than the new iBook. Here's a laptop that doesn't compete on any spec out there, yet wins reviews based on two things: 1) very useful and cool software; and 2) sexy looks. It also wins customers. I watched a pile of them walk out of Apple's Tysons Corner store, with smiles on their faces and boxes under thier arms. Then a couple days ago I heard a daily sales figure for the Glendale Galleria store that would rival the average department store. And trust me: Apple is making good margins in this business. |
| | What's more, the company is getting conversational with its customers at these stores in a huge way. It is finally, after all these years, connecting. |
| | I'll put it another way: business is love. And that's how Apple is finally making it. |
And we have the burned thighs and forearms to prove it
| | Every Santa Barbarian needs to do the Solstice Festival at least once. As newcomers, it was our turn to sit in the Sun, which during the parade is as close to directly overhead as our local star gets in these parts, and watch the parade of self-made-up wackos march up State Street. Joyce, who is already far more local than I, went over early to put out our four chairs, which was a very smart thing. It would only have been perfect if we had remembered to bring the sunblock. |
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