Mike,
You'll get no argument from me about Dr. Dumpland's $20 Million stock sale. That was the straw that broke the back of my particular Corel investment camel. Until then, I thought Corel investors should give the man the benefit of the doubt and let the CEO be the CEO.
However, as it has become apparent to me that the man's business strategy style is akin to throwing darts at a dart board, I have to give him credit for throwing the Linux dart.
A portion of a Boston Globe article that appeared in yesterday's Chicago Tribune:
MICROSOFT'S GREATEST THREAT MAY NOT BE IN WASHINGTON
By David Warsh, The Boston Globe.
.......Thus during the last year, Linux in particular and the Open Source movement in general have crept steadily forward into the larger culture: Forbes, the new and different Technology Review, The Economist, Science, the Sunday magazine of The New York Times.
More to the point, Linux has been making rapid business strides. Red Hat Software has begun selling shrink-wrapped copies of Linux for the giveaway price of $40, undergirded by promises of continuing support. Greylock Capital Management, a celebrated Boston venture capital firm, has in turn invested in Red Hat. IBM has pledged to support Linux for its servers and systems as well.
What will happen? Stay tuned! The more exuberant are already burying Microsoft. Others think Sun Microsystems could be Linux's chief victim. And, of course, other forces will continue to dog the world's richest man. The sudden emergence of the Open Source movement after 20 years of inexorable rise is a reminder that there are other fundamental forces at work in the world besides money. |
