A debate: "This house believes competition from Open Source software
benefits the entire software industry."
Stephen Tweedie, Linux developer
Mark Greatorex, .NET Developer Director for Microsoft UK
Debate chaired by Ian Ritchie
Wednesday 14th May 2003, 6:00 pm
Refreshments served from 6:15
pm
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society, 36 York Place, Edinburgh |
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Open source is a concept that has become increasingly prevalent in the
software world over the past five years or so. During this time there has been
vigorous debate over the relative merits of open-source and proprietary
software. More recently, however, there has been some convergence of views
between the two communities. This debate will address the importance of open
source for the whole software industry. The two speakers epitomise their
particular models: a developer who is immersed in the Linux operating system
and a senior UK representative of Microsoft.
Dr Stephen Tweedie is a senior consulting engineer with Red Hat software.
He was one of the early contributors to the Linux kernel, working on high-end
features including zero-copy disk IO, high availability and journaling file
systems. He previously worked at DEC on VMS cluster internals.
Mark Greatorex is the executive responsible for Microsoft’s strategy for
business and consumer software known as .NET. Mark joined Microsoft in 1998
and has held a number of significant roles within the company since that date.
Initially, he was responsible for the global relationship between ICL and
Microsoft, where he focused on the creation and subsequent development of the
strategic partnership. Subsequent to this, he was responsible for sales to the
public sector. He began his career in the IT industry in 1980 and, prior to
working for Microsoft, has also held positions at IBM, Oracle and Hewlett
Packard. He is a Computer Science graduate and also a member of the Worshipful
Company of Information Technologists.
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This meeting will be preceded by a short Annual General Meeting of the
Edinburgh Branch of the British Computer Society at 6:00 pm. |
