Memo to Xandros CEO: you're better off selling potatoes

Sam Varghese
Monday, 11 June 2007 05:55

Opinion and Analysis

“Linux says it does not infringe on patents, Microsoft say otherwise. But customers say let me buy some insurance because if there are any flying sparks I don’t want to be caught in the middle of that.”

Isn't Xandros Linux? Or is it some entity far removed from the operating system? Is Typaldos aware that the company which he heads sells something called Xandros Linux? Tomorrow if Monsanto comes along and says Xandros infringes some of its patents, will Typaldos go on his knees to that company as well?

If customers say he should wear a pink shirt every day of the week, will he oblige - provided they buy whatever it is he's selling?

“As we move up on the food chain in that area, then interoperability is more of a coupling of the lower levels of the products and the need to know how to open up the hood and fit all these things together.”

I'm pretty sure that Typaldos got this load of jargon from this site. What in the hell does it mean? I can say it too: "If we innovate magnetic action-items and incentivise leading-edge functionalities then the possibility of unleashing proactive infomediaries is greatly improved by engaging cross-platform action-items." I'm sure you understood that in its entirety, gentle reader.

“You have to recognise you have a Windows world out there. The customer in the market place is dictating what we are doing, not my engineers, not my private views of Microsoft vs. Linux, it is customers that say I have Windows over here, Sun over there, this over here, and I don’t want to worry about Windows or Linux. They want to run their business with single pane of glass management.”

I have a helpful suggestion for Kyrios Typaldos: please start selling potatoes. One never has to worry about such a product. It is not a complicated business either. You have only one thing to sell and it's pretty easy to measure too. Everyone buys it. It's a potato world out there.