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Valleywag names the "10 most terrible tyrants of tech"

Perhaps it was just a stunt to drive traffic (It's working!), but I enjoyed Valleywag's collection of the "10 most terrible tyrants of tech." It's perhaps telling that some of the industry's top companies (Microsoft, Apple, Salesforce.com) are headed by some of the most difficult people with whom to work:

Here's to the screaming ones. The chair-throwers. The death-threat makers. The imperious gazers. The ones who see things differently -- and will stare you down until you do, too....[T]hey have no respect for conversational decibel levels. You can cower before … Read more

The lurid, untold history of Red Hat

This morning I was talking with my sweet, missionary mother, and she asked me about my meetings yesterday with Red Hat.

Mom: Where did they get the name "Red Hat", anyway?

Me, not quite sure of the right answer: Well, I think one of the early founders, Bob Young, had a red fedora or something.

Mom: Was he a pimp?

I guess she wouldn't have found the answer on Red Hat's official history, nor would the Wikipedia entry for Red Hat help her. This list of the etymologies of corporate names, however, would have helped her.… Read more

OLPC, or why you can't copyright ideas

I have to agree with Mike Masnick's contention that Nicholas Negroponte is way off base in arguing that Intel and Microsoft are to blame for the One Laptop Per Child's problems. Whatever Microsoft's problems, a fervent desire to compete is not one of them. Ditto for Intel. According to Masnick:

While the idea behind creating a super cheap, super durable useful computer for children in developing nations is good, Negroponte has always approached the idea as one where only he should be allowed to see that vision through. When other companies decided it might be a good … Read more

Red Hat: Gateway to open source in Latin America

Latin America has tended to be one of the worst performing geographies for most software companies, generally coming in at one to four percent of total company revenues. That may be about to change.

Yesterday I had lunch with Julian Somodi, Red Hat's general manager for South America. Somodi has one of the most exceptional backgrounds of anyone I've met at Red Hat. His first "job" was with Red Hat: Until then, he had always been an entrepreneur, starting and selling a range of businesses.

In fact, he started the first real Red Hat distributorship in South America and practically demanded Red Hat to open shop in the region. (I heard this from his colleagues - Somodi isn't the type to brag of his own achievements.) He was Red Hat's first general manager back in 2006, and has been pushing forward ever since.

News flash for Red Hat: Somodi is still every bit the entrepreneur, and is now putting his drive and ambition to work for Red Hat. It's pretty impressive to behold. But then, for anyone that has worked with Somodi, they already know this.

Asay: Latin America has always been difficult for North American and European software companies. Between piracy and comparatively low budgets for technology, we've struggled to know how to do business in Latin America. You seem to see an opportunity, and have been closing some big customers like the Brazilian Federal Court. Why?… Read more

One year ago...Mark Shuttleworth on idealism

I was just reading through old Open Road posts, and was excited to find how appropriate two posts were, in particular, given my activities this week. I'm in Argentina for work, family (my parents live here), and play (skiing with Mark Shuttleworth), and this last one prods me to link to an old post and recapture some of it here:

Mark does an excellent job of balancing idealism and pragmatism in how he approaches open source, which comes across perfectly in the article:

"It's very easy to declare victory," says Mr. Shuttleworth, describing the smug attitude … Read more

What copyright costs us

It was depressing to read that William Patry, Google's senior copyright counsel, has decided to stop blogging. With only occasional gusts of lucid intelligence in the blogging community, Patry's blog was a full-out gale.

Due to "crazies...who do not have a life of their own and so insist on ruining the lives of others" by comment-bombing Patry's blog, and due to the deteriorating use of copyright to harm rather than help, Patry has opted to leave the blogging building:

Copyright law has abandoned its reason for being: to encourage learning and the creation of new works. Instead, its principal functions now are to preserve existing failed business models, to suppress new business models and technologies, and to obtain, if possible, enormous windfall profits from activity that not only causes no harm, but which is beneficial to copyright owners. Like Humpty Dumpty, the copyright law we used to know can never be put back together again.

On the "crazies," I completely understand. Anonymity and geographical distance make people bold to say things that ought not be said. I'm also guilty of this. I suspect we all are. Some things are too easily said with a keyboard.

But on the latter, it's dispiriting to see confirmation from such a copyright expert that we may be past redemption. In both copyright and patent law, the powerful continue to hoard their power (which is natural), while judges and lawmakers seek to capitulate to that power (which is not natural--or shouldn't be).… Read more

Gates argues for "creative capitalism" while Microsoft neglects it

While Bill Gates rightly argues for "creative capitalism" that will "most effectively spread the benefits of capitalism and the huge improvements in quality of life it can provide to people who have been left out," his old company, Microsoft, continues to ignore one of the best ways to drive value into and from those developing economies:

Open source.

Proprietary software treats developing economies as "vassals" to Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAP, etc. Open-source software, on the other hand, gives developing economies the raw materials to build up their own IT ecosystems. Instead of shipping rubles back to the US to pay for US-developed software, Russia and the developing IT economies of the world can keep their currency local, and then start inviting others' currencies in.

Some criticize Gates' proposals as misplaced. I tend to agree, but not for the reasons these critics highlight. No, I think Gates simply isn't "creative" enough in his capitalism. He suggests:… Read more

Mozilla's head of engineering leaves for Facebook

Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's vice president of Engineering, has left Mozilla to join Facebook as its director of Engineering. I only met Mike once but was hugely impressed by him. His loss, while it shouldn't significantly hurt Mozilla's continued momentum, is a loss to Mozilla.

That's the problem with being a non-profit. It will always be hard to retain people long-term since there's no possible pay-out at the end. Mozilla has done an exceptional job of hiring great people, but I worry that it (along with Eclipse, Linux Foundation, etc.) will be able to keep those … Read more

How news gets made (Or, Dan Lyons on Valleywag on Steve Jobs)

I like Dan Lyons' blog much more now than when he was writing as Fake Steve Jobs. Same bite and same insight without the noise.

Take, for example, a post today on Valleywag's complaint about how Apple PR is managing information relative to Steve Jobs' health. I made an unfortunate decision to post on the subject earlier, got swatted by Tom Krazit, and now am following it from the sidelines.

Those sidelines, incidentally, are fascinating, as Dan's post suggests. Dan is a veteran news reporter and talks through how the Jobs story is playing out, by whom, and … Read more