Linux and growth of Internet

From: Gavin Thomas Nicol <gtn_at_rbii.com>
Date: Thu Jan 13 16:25:01 2005

On Jan 13, 2005, at 4:50 PM, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
> But my original assertion was that the rapid rise, development and
> adoption of the Internet to the mainstream masses was propelled by
> Linux.
> And while you had "e-mail", unless we're talking about Internet e-mail
> (and notwithstanding Fidonet), it was based in closed, proprietary
> systems
> that were not interconnected. The introduction to the Internet was an
> afterthought, only when it proved itself to be indispensable to their
> viability as a business.

It's all network effects... open standards typically win in the long
run because of network effects. The closed systems ended up needing to
communicate, so they ended up using the Internet. Then people were
stuck maintaining 2 systems... and everyone knows that doesn't last for
long.

> Another thing is that we've had the internet since the 1960s. Many
> people
> tried to bring predecessors of the Web (e.g. Videotex) systems to the
> US
> in the 1980s and failed.

Network effects again. Why do you think Europe, Japan etc. lead the US
vis-a-vis cell phone usage?
Received on Thu Jan 13 2005 - 16:25:01 GMT