At a time when banks are shedding IT roles by the dozen, it seems counter-intuitive that 83 per cent of the nation’s chief information officers should report they are confident about the future of their business to the extent that 45 per cent expect to hire IT staff in the first six months of the year. The question remains – is this a dead cat bounce?
Ms Benjamin replied: "I often need to work with people who have no choice but to use proprietary technologies for a variety of reasons. My interactions with them highlight the need for interoperability. My perspective is that working collaboratively and without hostility is the best way to achieve true cross-platform interoperability which will maximise technology accessibility for the widest number of people. Just as humanity is trying to protect biodiversity in the natural world, I think we should be working towards diversity in our technical world."
She added; "If you're looking for some negativity from me - I will say this. My chief frustrations come when I find myself in the midst of a war of opinion that seems hopelessly binary. For example Gnome vs KDE, or RPM vs DEB. There are different applications, different pathways, and I see that as a strength. As someone said to me recently 'Every application is the best solution for a given task and a given user'. I tend to find the flame wars to be a pointless waste of energy. What does it achieve to say 'My whatever' is better than yours?
"I also don't think we succeed when we focus energy on enemies, winners and losers. The question for me comes down to what is possible? How can we bring vision to fruition? I believe passionately in Open Source Software Freedom. It simply is a better way to develop and distribute software. Developers should have access to code, and have the freedom to make it better. But my belief does not extend to flaming the opposition for doing things differently."
Jonathan Oxer, the charman of Linux Australia, under whose banner the conference is held, said he agreed with Ms Benjamin's views. "(I) basically agree with what she said. I don't think there's anything in particular I could add to her response or anything I'd contradict," he said, when asked if he had anything to say on the topic.
These arguments notwithstanding, it is a fact that overlooking what Novell has done tends to dilute the whole message of FOSS. Novell, obviously, is hoping that, as public memory is woefully short, it will be able to wriggle its way back into the community. Providing such leeway is, in my opinion, a big mistake.
Michelle Thomas
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