Thank you Charles, that was a eloquent missive. I happen to agree.
Too many people sit in their corner of the world and pontificate on how things should. What they do not realize, is the list visibility in terms of the Church is very high right now. So, the initial discussion (Scout Tracking) has since tailed off into the weeds, as I feared it might. I don't mind a discussion on the theoretical, or philisophical, but Tom Welch is looking for people who will do - not discuss so much. And, this will not impress the people all these good folks are looking to impress. In my discussion with Tom Welch, he let me know that 2 of the Bretheren are directly involved with the decision to go this direction. As Tom put it, "They are cautiously optimistic...". That tells me, they are not fully on board with this yet, and there is plenty of observation and conclusions still to come. ...Paul -----Original Message----- >From: Charles Fry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Jun 19, 2006 2:34 PM >To: LDS Open Source Software <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: [Ldsoss] Linux and Windows--How wide the divide > >> Yes, general thoughts and designs should be cross-platform, or rather, >> should be platform independent, but once a concept is to be realized and >> implemented, why not select the platform that best lends itself to the >> success of the concept, be it Linux or Windows. I may be a Windows/.NET >> guy, but I'm happy to concede some ideas are easier/faster/cheaper developed >> on Linux, and vice versa. >> >> Why do we have to live in a vanilla world? Sometimes I like chocolate and >> sometimes I like strawberry. Sometimes I like both. I don't agree with the >> philosophy of trying to please everyone just to be nice. Let's do what's >> best for the success of a given idea. > >For that matter, the open source world has shown us the long-term >viability of a software ecosystem that allows competition, even >internally. It would be silly to enumerate all of the instances of this; >I am sure that we all have our favorite examples. > >The point is, there is nothing wrong with creating multiple, differing, >competing programs that perform similar tasks. On the contrary, this can >be beneficial for all. > >I feel that for all of it's open source bent, this group is half-waiting >for the Church to formally organize some cool projects so that they can >work on them. While this might happen in some rare cases, I can't help >but noting that this mindset is very similar to the central software >development paradigm that the open source movement challenges. > >It is true that if the Church created an Official Open Source Project, >there would be only way that it operated, and so decisions like this >might need to be made. > >But in the freedom of our open source world, such central decisions are >irrelevant. Some may use Java, some may focus on Windows, some may >create web services. There are so many dimensions on which projects can >vary that are only relevant to the people who decide to implement them. > >What we need at this point is not people to tell us what to do, but >people to stand up, take some leadership, and start projects that they >have been talking about or thinking about or waiting for someone else to >start. At this point action is at a much higher shortage than good >ideas. > >In saying this, I also recognize that we all have different talents and >can contribute in different ways. While I personally feel we are lacking >in actual projects created, I don't find myself in the position to >create one at this time. :-) Rather I am trying to make my contribution >as a Debian Developer by packaging open source projects that I feel >could benefit members of the Church (and as part of that, please feel >free to approach me if you want your new software packaged for Debian, >which it must be noted feeds Ubuntu). > >Whatever the various contributions are that we make, I would personally >consider this list a sad failure if in the end it's impact was limited >to the mailing list archive. > >Charles > >-- >Mom and Pop >Are feeling gay >Baby said >As plain >As day >Burma-Shave >http://burma-shave.org/jingles/1939/mom_and_pop >_______________________________________________ >Ldsoss mailing list >[email protected] >http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss _______________________________________________ Ldsoss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss
