Leggo' My Software!

I was exploring old Firefox bookmarks today and I came across one for PostPath. PostPath was a play-a-like Exchange server. That is, it was a Linux based mail server which emulated an Exchange server environment. This struck interest with me because it overcame many of the limitations with Exchange server and yet would allow you to sneak it into an environment and still make mail accessible by use of Outlook.

But - Cisco fucking ATE IT.

By their own words, "PostPath will work with Cisco to enhance the existing email and calendaring capabilities of Cisco's WebEx® Connect collaboration platform". Huh? What this means to you as a customer is "we will merge this with other stuff, rebox it, and raise the price to something ridiculous".

In the process, I see that they have also acquired Jabber. This breaks my heart. Jabber was the worlds first standardized instant messaging protocol and platform. While AOL, Yahoo, and ICQ all fought to obscure instant messaging protocols to protect their advertising revenue, Jabber fought to unify instant messaging. But alas, Cisco has fucking bought the company and will likely just choke the life out of it.

I know that this is a two-fold problem.

1) CEO's and startups selling out. Not that I wouldn't. If I had this great idea and I was struggling to run some business, I would surely sell it for a few million.
2) These days, good ideas are not "dreamed up" - they are auctioned to the highest bidder and then marketed to inflate stock values (regardless of how they might even HELP a company do business).

I probably shouldn't even bring it up, but does anyone remember when Palm bought the Be corporation back in 2001? That was money well spent, eh Palm? What have you done with that code exactly? I loved that operating system and Palm ate it. Palm, I hope your company dies the horrible death that it has coming to it.

How the fuck is Palm still in business any way? Their stock has been under two bucks for like a decade.