Progeny Linux Systems Discontinues Its Distribution, Oct 16, 2001

Just over ten months after the release of its first shrink-wrapped distribution, Progeny Linux Systems has announced that it is getting out of the shrink-wrap product business and concentrating its efforts on its consulting operations, where the company has already reported profits.

Will Linux desktops innovate? No. I don't think of that as being the solution: because it's open source.

It doesn't lend itself to coming up with new paradigms. The one thing it's very good thing at is designing software for other hackers, for other nerds, really.

In two months time, we've certainly seen some interesting developments. Nothing earth-shattering like the entire world switching to Linux, but it's an interesting scenario with WindowsXP on its way to consumers. In this short time, we've seen some rays of hope as well as caverns of despair.

That's the way vendors make money. They push products on the market before they've been adequately tested, demand payment up front and then are often not available to deal with the sequelae of poorly performing products.

... some CIOs are opting to circumnavigate packaged software wherever possible. They're turning to open-source technologies such as the GNU and Linux operating systems, the Apache Web server and Sendmail e-mail. "People are not involved with [the open-source movement] for profit; they're involved with it because they want to write good product," says Bill Lessard, coauthor of NetSlaves: True Tales of Working the Web and a former developer for Prodigy and AOL Time Warner. "If software makers see they are losing money to people going the open-source route, then they will change. Until then, it will be business as usual despite appearances."

News about using Linux and Open Souce in the field of Education.

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