Larry Simonsen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I also find that open is defined but the ones with the money.  If my boss
>does not think the hp e3000 is open then for all practical purposes it is
>not.  It is just this battle that the hp e3000 is really fighting.

Very well put.  It all begins at the top (at Larry's company as well as
at hp, at Apple as well as at M$, at Oracle as well as at AICS or Adager).

"Beginning at the top" does not mean that "all tops want the same thing",
though.  Some tops (for instance M$) do extremely well with proprietary
"standards" which, by virtue of their (top-)heavy weights become de-facto
standards and then just plain standards.  It's all a matter of passion.

If you have guts and pursue your top priorities with passion (take leaders
such as Bill Gates, Scott McNealy and Steve Jobs as examples), you WILL
see your material succeed as a standard (Bill's Windows, Scott's Unix
-- Sun DID put Unix on the map, don't forget --, Steve's FireWire and
QuickTime -- not to mention that Mac clone known as M$ Windows :-)

If you follow the leaders with a modicum of management skills, you may
also be allowed to jump on the bandwagon (witness top hp managers, for
example, frantically jumping onto the Unix and Windows bandwagons and,
recently, also on the Linux bandwagon).

So, Larry's point is well put and well taken: "It is just this battle that
the hp e3000 is really fighting".  Interestingly, we must associate
"the hp e3000" (an abstract entity) with its worldwide user base as its
"top", because it would be ridiculous to associate the hp e3000 with
top hp managers.  This is more akin to guerrilla warfare than to
traditional
"standard' warfare.  What are the weapons?  Simple economics, based on a
top priority for companies that must make money: Cost of ownership and
operation for a given level of performance and reliability.




--

  _______________
|               |
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|            r  |  Alfredo                     [log in to unmask]
|          e    |                           http://www.adager.com
|        g      |  F. Alfredo Rego
|      a        |  Manager, R & D Labs
|    d          |  Adager Corporation
|  A            |  Sun Valley, Idaho 83353-3000            U.S.A.
|               |
|_______________|