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On 8/17/06, Francis Cianfrocca <garbagecat10 / gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Part of what is happening to Java and Solaris is that Sun is flailing
> as a company. There isn't really a great deal of rationale for Sun to
> remain independent, but they're not an attractive acquisition target
> because their book of business is primarily replacement, services and
> maintenance, not growth. They are trying to find ways to stay
> relevant, and perhaps getting a bigger footprint in the software world
> will help them. IBM, which faces business problems of a similar nature
> but very different in degree, has been helped a great deal by their
> (admittedly self-serving) advocacy of selected open-source
> initiatives. (Specifically those where they don't have a competitive
> commercial offering.)


Personally I think if Sun (or other old-timers) were to realize the value of
Ruby...both as a language in itself and as a major value proposition for
businesses, they could be a major driving force behind Ruby adoption. As far
as the public knows, that hasn't really happened yet for any of these
companies since they have such a vested interest in the status quo. As much
as you might hate the PR world, having a large software/hardware/services
company make a major, public commitment to Ruby would really help validate
it for large-scale, large-investment development work. It could be the
tipping point.

Ruby currently faces a totally different market dynamic (and set of
> opportunities) because its community is perceived as having a
> significant anti-business streak to it, as Linux did in its early
> days.


I think perhaps this is more a characteristic of up-and-coming Open Source
projects in general. Raising an OSS project from the ground up without major
corporate backing is fairly anti-establishment. It's important to notice,
however, that the "big name" OSS projects these days--while still driven by
vibrant communities and development teams--also have backing from one or
more large commercial vendors. As much as folks may hate it, if Ruby offers
a compelling business reason to switch from language X, it will start to get
that backing, that PR, and that push into the commercial and enterprise
worlds. You can't keep all the fun for yourselves, no matter how much you
complain about today's more commercialized languages. I say bring it
on...more Ruby means more fun and better software for me and the rest of the
world. If Sun or IBM or Microsoft want to commit real resources to Ruby and
Ruby projects, all the better. They'd be making a very *smart* decision, in
my book.

-- 
Contribute to RubySpec! @ www.headius.com/rubyspec
Charles Oliver Nutter @ headius.blogspot.com
Ruby User @ ruby.mn
JRuby Developer @ www.jruby.org
Application Architect @ www.ventera.com

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