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From: Andrew Payne <[email protected]>
To: Bruce Momjian <[email protected]>
Cc: PostgreSQL-development <[email protected]>
Cc: PostgreSQL advocacy <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: What can we learn from MySQL?
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 00:24:22 -0400
Message-ID: <[email protected]> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>


Bruce wrote:

> > Does anyone know of an open source project that *has* successfully
displaced
> > a market of mature, established products WITHOUT a commercial entity
> > providing marketing, support & direction?
>
> Linux.  It doesn't have a single company behind it, but several.

Uh, no.  Linux HAD a commercial entity providing marketing, support, and
direction.  Red Hat went a long, long way to making Linux real for
businesses.  They were (are) a well-funded entity, focused on Linux
adoption.  Their early success, in turn, validated the business (a) so
competitors got funded and (b) so established companies (e.g. IBM) started
to pay attention.

(This is not meant to give all credit to Red Hat:  if it wasn't them, it
would have been some other similar group).

So, does anyone know of an open source project that *has* successfully
displaced a market of mature, established products WITHOUT a commercial
entity providing marketing, support & direction?

If not, where's the Red Hat for Postgres?

Good discussion!

-andy

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