On Thursday 16 May 2002 11:26 am, Post, Mark K wrote: > I looked at the article. They seem to have a single-minded view that Linux > is going to, actually _must_, "fragment" or fork at some point in the > future. That colors the rest of their analysis for me, as it seems to > indicate a severe lack of understanding of the Linux community. There have > always been various functions, patches, whatever that were not part of the > official source tree.
Well said, Mark. When managers ask me, "But what happens if there is a fork in some of the open source code!?", my response is, "It has already happened. It happens all the time." People don't understand that small forks in an open source project are like random mutations in a biological creature. They are an essential part of evolution, not something to be feared. Most of these code mutations are unfavorable, and die off. A few find an eco-niche and evolve into separate species. One may become the dominant form of the original code base. In my opinion, the reason open source is so successful is not due to the brilliance of humans. It is because humans were smart enough to mimic a process that has served Mother Nature well for several billion years. Scott -- -----------------------+------------------------------------------------------ Scott Courtney | "I don't mind Microsoft making money. I mind them [EMAIL PROTECTED] | having a bad operating system." -- Linus Torvalds http://www.4th.com/ | ("The Rebel Code," NY Times, 21 February 1999)
