Choice in the Age of Giants

Probably

the most stirring participation at IT.com, Bangalore’s mega IT show early

November involved Linux. That pavilion brought together protagonists of the

rebel OS from across the country. Thousands have given their time to developing

this OS, perhaps for the David-Goliath flavor of this battle with Microsoft

Windows.

But corporates, not given to charitable rooting for the underdog, have also

taken to Linux strongly. They talk of stability and cost, but the penguin is

important to them because it represents choice. Perhaps the only choice of

platform that will be available to them, as Microsoft almost completely

dominates the software world. In a homogeneous world, there’s no alternative,

no negotiation, and far less motivation for Microsoft itself to improve its

products. That’s why you need choice. You need Linux, and Oracle, and Lotus,

and the struggling others.

In the same week, Transmeta, the company that Linux creator Linus Torvalds

now works for, had a setback. Its Crusoe processor, which promised near-Intel

performance with greatly increased battery life for portables, was dropped by

IBM and Compaq. Each had planned to use the Crusoe in one notebook line. Each

concluded that the battery life gain was not big enough for the

"risk". This was not about performance and architecture. The risk was

really about going against Intel.

That could have sounded the death-knell for Transmeta. But at least four

other vendors, including Sony, did announce Crusoe-based products. And clearly,

the chip, which promises to run cool at very low power, fills a need that the

competition-free Intel has not addressed. For the Silicon Valley upstart’s IPO

(after IBM’s and Compaq’s announcements) was very healthy indeed, giving

Transmeta an instant market cap of nearly $6 billion.

This is the age of giants. Even if you dismantle or weaken monopolies such as

VSNL, market forces tend to favor the survival of the big. AOL’s dominance has

already caused worries about the decreasing amount of choice of North American

ISPs. In India, Bharti Airtel’s growth through acquisitions may lead to more

efficient and profitable cellular operations, but customers have already begun

to encounter service level declines and failures to complete calls.

Everywhere you look, there are giants getting bigger: through buyouts,

mergers, acquisitions. Will this lead to the frightening scenario of a world

without choice for the consumer?

You’d better hope not. We desperately need choice: for innovation, for

negotiation, for better products. Take away choice, and it’s worse than a

seller’s market.

That’s a big reason why Linux, Transmeta, and all those upstart startups

are so important for the future of this information society.

pkr@cmil.com