The Cathedral Has Beaten The Bazaar

Someone was very impressed with ComPlus and declared it meant "Game Over" for Linux, then proclaimed that TheCathedralHasBeatenTheBazaar.

From what I can see, ComPlus looks swell. It may even mean a huge win for Microsoft over Linux (though I rather doubt Linux will die because of it). But let's all please realize that TheCathedralAndTheBazaar is not limited in even the slightest form to Windows and Linux. Or are you really intending to argue that ComPlus makes not only Linux obsolete, but also Perl, and Tcl, and Python, and Apache, and Emacs and CVS/RCS and every single one of the scores of other OpenSource software programs out there (many of which aren't tied to a particular OS)?

Beaten at what?

The current battle in the IT world is the battle over the middle-tier. EJB is one approach, ComPlus is another. The theory is that whoever wins gets ubiquity in enterprise computing. Microsoft seems to have done its homework. Moreover, they made their solution part of the OS. But it will be uphill for them. Enterprise hasn't been their market.

Amusing note -- this was last updated in 1999. As of 2003, Linux is going stronger than ever. Microsoft has since "Game Over"ed ComPlus in favour of "WebServices", which most knowledgeable developers expect to be "Game Over"ed sometime in the next two to three years in favour of the NextBigThing. Given DotNet's tiny growth rate and patent encumberance (which DotGnu and MonoProject have declared will never be a problem, as Microsoft would never use patents offensively) this seems likely.

Second amusing note -- here in the year 2006 Linux and MonoProject/DotGnu face a tsunamic challenge with the release of WpFe. .Net 3.0 will run in every browser on every platform, leading app controllers and session state out of the server and back into the client. Simultaneously obviating AjAx and Flash through XaMl and XPS, this puts Adobe, Sun, and Oracle under a killing pressure. The cathedral is back, and this time the bazaar has no choice but to set up shop inside its walls. How long until the doors close and the screaming begins?

note XPS (Xml Paper Specification) is a MicrosoftXml subcomponent within XaMl

The very existence of the MonoProject and DotGnu shows that the cathedral-vs-bazaar argument will never be won by the Cathedral. After all, the Bazaar is selling quite usable cheap Cathedrals at a much better price.

they made their solution part of the OS This is the problem with the Microsoft platform. It's a BigBallOfMud. You can't tell where the ApplicationServer ends and the OperatingSystem begins. You may not even be able to tell where the application ends and the ApplicationServer begins. The whole thing is opaque in constrast to JavaTwoEnterpriseEdition, in which you control JVM processes running on the OS, and in which there are well-defined contracts between application and ApplicationServer.

During the good ol' days of COM, COM made Microsoft much more bazaar-like, as COM allowed control to decentralize to individual teams. This had a high awesome factor. In the dark days of Ballmer, when the company is "centralizing" (centroidizing?) into a spherical BigBallOfMud, you can see how 'nimble' Microsoft is.

The point of that little story is that cathedrals and bazaars are within themselves quite varied in approach.

And now it's 2011 and Linux is even stronger, while Microsoft has been trying to be a little bit more open, e.g., the new MS Office file formats. On the other hand, COM and COM+ were superseded by .NET, and now MS is dropping .NET in favor of HTML5 and JS.