1998: I believed that experiments like Mexico’s ScholarNet would some day the dynamics of the software landscape. The prospect of thousands of the bright motivated kids getting a running start on Linux — who knew what they could do in time?

Flash forward to 2001: Alas, it was not to be. Windows won the day and Free Software lost. Make no mistake folks, this is a major defeat. Not only in a traditional market-share sense, but: it shows (I believe) quite vividly the limitations of Free Software/Open Source models when not backed by a decent business plan. When I see lines like “Finding enough capable programmers and system administrators proved to be the primary obstacle for the project.”, I can almost hear the Microsoft marketing machine cranking up on their variation of the JWZ critique: If your time and resources are free, then — and only then — so is Linux. Like it or not, to succeed in the real world, you need more than a few über-talented individuals — you need to carry the lusers and dumbasses along.

But: whining about it is not going to help. What I ask you — as users, developers, fans, whatever — what can we do to ensure this never happens again?