Free Software and the Environment

Yesterday I offered some initial impressions on Tom Friedman's new book, The World is Flat. Among those impressions is that tech is very good at looking inward but not that great at looking outward. One reason for techies to read Friedman's book, then, is that it provides great context, even if much of what he says may seem like the same old same old to technology providers who have been fighting the commoditization battle for a long time.

"It's time for the tech sector to think beyond itself . . ."
--Jonathan Schwartz, COO, Sun Microsystems

So, I was interested in reading an bylined article in yesterday's Business Week Online by Jonathan Schwartz, COO at Sun Microsystems, titled " The Tech Industry's Great Task." In the article he actually seems to take on a couple of tasks. One is to promote the use of free software. The other is to promote the idea of cutting back on the use of electricity to power computers -- a major contributor to polution. The connection is that both ideas are examples of looking outward. And that tech will only do well by doing good "outside" -- something it has to get much better at.

Free software means bigger sales of those things that play on free software -- like applications -- which have greater value add. Schwartz compares this to what the auto industry is doing with hybrids -- cars that cost more but also contain greater technology value add than do the gas guzzlers they replace. Ironically, as Schwartz points out, the markets most at risk from industrial polution (like Russia and China) are also the places most likely to buy more power-hungry commodity blade servers.

Okay, so making software free is not as good (probably in both senses) as making hybrids. But it's a start. Software is a much less mature industry than cars -- but it's also growing up a lot faster. As Schwartz says: "punch[ing] above its weight class." That's a good analogy. So is a willingness to step outside.