{"id":5300,"date":"2014-06-16T13:09:50","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T18:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdtimes.com\/?page_id=5300"},"modified":"2014-07-10T10:39:28","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T15:39:28","slug":"2005-best-in-show","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sdtimes.com\/sd-times-100\/2005-best-in-show\/","title":{"rendered":"SD Times 100: 2005 \u2014 May We Have The Envelopes Please"},"content":{"rendered":"
Many trends evolved during the twelve months of 2004, moving from being new, interesting ideas to becoming part of our industry\u2019s infrastructure. The SD Times 100 is our attempt to recognize the players behind those trends. Each year, we seek to identify the movers and shakers. Not merely the biggest of the big (though such companies are nearly always influential), the companies and organizations cited in the SD Times 100 are those that we believe demonstrated the greatest amount of leadership, either through market clout or meaningful technological innovation.<\/p>\n
The word \u201cmeaningful\u201d is important: A clever new tool or interesting paradigm isn\u2019t enough to demonstrate leadership. To lead, others must follow. We define the SD Times 100 as being those organizations, individuals or movements that were talked about, those that created not only great technology but also great buzz.<\/p>\n
Sometimes leadership drives an industry in the wrong direction. Such was the case with one of the most controversial companies mentioned in last year\u2019s SD Times 100, published in the May 15 issue. We took some heat for naming The SCO Group as a top influencer. As we said at the time, \u201cThe company\u2019s legal assaults on IBM and Linux users dominated 2003\u2019s tech headlines and shook up the open-source community. No other IT topic inspires such fervent debate, fear, uncertainty and doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our choice was controversial. Many readers felt that by recognizing SCO, we were endorsing the company\u2019s initiatives. But we stand behind our recognition of SCO, because the company set off a firestorm of debate within the entire IT industry, minor aftershocks of which are still being felt today. If that doesn\u2019t define influence, nothing does.<\/p>\n
Of course, fame may be fleeting. You won\u2019t find SCO listed among this year\u2019s SD Times 100 companies. Why? Even though the courts haven\u2019t yet ruled on the legal case, the software development community has voted the company, and its tactics, off the island. Open-source software is stronger now than it was before SCO began its assaults; look at the tremendous success of Eclipse and JBoss, for example, Sun\u2019s initiatives around OpenSolaris, and the re-emergence of Novell as serious player. In other words, the FUD flopped.<\/p>\n