[Ocaml-biz] The strategic future of OCaml for 2..4 years

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Brian Hurt wrote:
>
> Yep.  And there is a hell of a lot of business depending upon
> and using
> open source.  Microsoft doesn't have a lock on business software.

It can be open source, or 'big iron' proprietary UNIX business models,
or whatever, but let's talk about *business* models.  The OCaml
community currently has a culture tending towards the academic.
Uncoincidentally, many of those academics are UNIXen and world views
converge.

> > Bill Gates pisses *lots* of people off.  Go to school on that.
>
> So does Sadam Hussein.  Go to school on that.

Bill Gates ships software and Saddam Hussein shipped death and torture.
Not relevant... but hmm, using C++ *is* an awful lot like death and
torture...

> Requesting.  Proposing.  Whatever.  The problem isn't with
> what you're doing, it's with what you want.

Really.  Ok, tell me what I want?  Your view of what I want might
clarify something here.

> > But it's all true.  Everyone running around doing their own
> > thing, on
> > their own whim, is exactly the description of flakes.
>
> Then you and I live in a nation of flakes.  Because that's my
> definition of a free culture- including a free market.

Yes we do, in fact.  The USA is a consumer driven culture.

> Capitialism beat
> the more unified but less intelligent Communism because it
> takes advantage of these emergent properties.

But Microsoft has, to date, beaten everyone else with proprietary
monopoly power.  It doesn't have to stay that way, and they're starting
to show strains, but they're still doing ok at it.  So you can't assume
that issuing commands and dictums is an invalid strategy.  Open Source
is a contender, not a champion.

> > Again I ask: what is catnip for the herd of cats?
>
> Do something cool.  Do it in Ocaml.

What do the cats consider cool?  What do they download and pay attention
to longer than 5 seconds?


Cheers,                         www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every               Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.