I've noticed that open source programmers have a tendency to be very honest and upfront with their softwares' defects and weaknesses.
I'm starting to wonder if that is a good thing.... e.g. I was amazed at OSCON 2002 when Guido (Python creator) gave a talk titled "Python Regrets". He outlined all the things he would have done differently. I remember thinking, "I've never seen a commercial company do this... What is going on here?" Likewise, at Pycon 2008 I saw a leader of one of 2 big competing web frameworks (in a crowded room during his talk!) admit certain failings about his side. I remember thinking, "How is this helping the war?" It may be true that it is the openness/integrity/honesty that has gotten F/OSS this far. I *hope* that honesty is the best policy. Yes I wonder if the marketing experts would agree with that. For example, what do the big boys in Microsoft's and Sun's marketing departments say one should do? Chris -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
