The Industry choice

[Cameron Laird]

In article <pan.2004.12.31.11.29.03.517333 at chello.at>,
Christopher Koppler  <klapotec at chello.at> wrote:
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>Manager culture is still very much mired in rituals that may in one form
>or another go back to hunter-gatherer days (or maybe even further); that
>'the industry choice' is more often than not something backed by a *major*
>company is part of a ritual complex based on relations to the alpha male.
>Small companies ingratiate themselves with their perceived betters by
>using their products, even when technically far superior products would be
>available. When the 'market leader' produces a new toy, everyone who wants
>to be in his favor must use it _and_ also damn the toys available from any
>of those competing for leadership, viz. the ongoing state of cold war
>between Sun and MS and their respective worshipers. Toys that have not
>been sanctioned by the leader, or that are, even worse, de facto unknown
>to him, are met with ignorance, scorn, or even repression.
>
>[snip]
>> For Python a Big Thing would happen if some Major Vendor
>> embraced it as its Official Language(tm). Python language
>> itself could turn into a smoking crock the very next day, but
>> everybody who doesn't live under the rock would still be 
>> writing in it.
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>The moral is, of course, that either the Python community's alpha geeks
>need to get access to controlling interest in a *major* company (or to
>become successful enough with their own companies to register on the
>current *major* companies radar as potential competition) or as you
>say, Python needs to be embraced like Linux was. That's the way to win the
>hearts of software companies' managers.
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I like repeating the description which emphasizes culture
and phenotype over the rationality of business schools.

Let me add a cautionary note, though:  Big Companies, 
including Oracle, Software AG, IBM, Cisco, and so on, have
adopted Tcl over and over.  All of them still rely on Tcl
for crucial products.  All of them also have employees who
sincerely wonder, "Tcl?  Isn't that dead?"

I offer this as a counter-example to the belief that Adop-
tion by a heavyweight necessarily results in widespread
acceptance.