On Mon, 1 Oct 2001, Derek D. Martin wrote:
> Me thinks the problem is much deeper rooted though, as evidenced by some
> discussions I've had with the GnuCash guys.
>
> The gist of it was that OSS programmers don't like stability and
> compatibility. It isn't sexy.
That does seem to be a syndrome OSS developers often suffer from. Yet it
is not a rule. Off the top of my head, I think I would name Apache, Samba,
KDE, Sendmail [1], ISC BIND [2], OpenBSD, even Pine.
Hypothesis: OSS projects that incorporate a strong, "Cathedral-style"
core development team, with a controlled process for contributions from
"outside", do better in this department than more loosely controlled
efforts.
Comments?
Footnotes
---------
[1] Sendmail does have a history of security holes, but it has proven to be
very stable and compatible. Indeed, many of those holes use techniques
that still function very well today. :-)
[2] Ditto.
--
Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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