But 10 years ago, the Open Source poster children were far more ambitious: operating systems (Linux) and major applications (Apache, OpenOffice, etc.). Your examples are interesting in terms of computer science, and there are lots of others like them (LLVM could well be revelatory), but isn't there an enormous downsizing in scope and ambition between the two eras? OSS seems to me like it's resting on its laurels. And yet, we're not even seriously talking about putting GIMP and OO.o in front of normal users anymore, are we?
As for boasting, maybe it's unfair to pick a single comment, but to me, it's typical of what I hear from a lot of OSS evangelists. At the Roundup in 2008 (episode #199, around 2:05), Joel says "All software that matters will eventually be open source. Otherwise, it just dies." That's literally an expression of "ours is the One True Way", and I don't want to pick on Joel specifically because seems like a lot of people fervently believe this kind of thing, despite what looks to me like an ongoing slide in the relevance of OSS to the end user in recent years. --Chris On Dec 7, 9:29 am, Dick Wall <[email protected]> wrote: > 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.
