I can't let this go unchallenged... > While I'm happy to criticize a lot of things about the Open Source > community -- it's boastful, prone to infighting, it copies and > commoditizes instead of innovating, and it hasn't done anything really > interesting for at least five years (and maybe 10) -- virulent sexism > and harrassment was not a vice I would have thought to associate with > it. On its face, this seems like a totally unfair charge.
As opposed to the other unfair charges leveled here? I am surprised as hell to hear "open source" described in this manner - particularly copy and commoditize which is a gross over-generalization. I assume, knowing your focus Chris, that you are referring to UI work in open source, since there is definitely influence there from other platforms like the Mac (although, like with virtual desktops, Apple proved that it can copy back just fine), but counter examples are embarrassingly easy to provide. Just take a look at Clojure's STM, and Scala's Akka (hell, even Scala's type system), for a very easy pair of counter examples where at the very least incredible innovation (and invention in a couple of these examples as well) are taking place in some exemplary open-source projects. I also find these developments interesting, along with many, many more in the open source community, and they happened within the past 5 years. As for boastful, I see nothing even close to the arrogance displayed by Apple in recent events "You're holding it wrong", "It's a magical device", etc. Infighting, sure - but struggle is an essential part of evolution. Dick -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
