>And they start to find it hard to make time to spend time on >anything that isn't work - ie open source projects. I've seen
That *was* my point. >this happen on a number of occasions. And contrary to what >you're suggesting, they don't turn up an opensolaris, sometime >later (or at least none have, yet.) I think you misunderstood. I didn't think I was that unclear! *I* think the Linux 'model' is flawed. Take away the amateurs, and you have a small number of full time engineers, who are in Linux' case diluted by ineffective management and lack of shared purpose. Sun is in a *good* position. Why pander to the amateur masses? They won't make Solaris better through code contribution. It *would* help to make Open Solaris buildable and maleable by ISVs for particular application scenarios, particularly embedded server devices, but once again that's a professional contribution. >You're missing the point of the importance of students and >what happens in the open source world. I suppose the closest >I can come up with as a model is how people pick and choose >their political tendencies and once chosen, they almost never >change. I disagree. I have a different viewpoint now than I did then. >If the community is going to grow then we need to grow it from >the roots by planting seeds in the right places where they will >grow. I don't *care* if it grows. I just care if OS is a good platform for option pricing and trade management. I want Sun to (continue to) do a good job. I don't see community as germane to that. Openness, transparency, early access, and free as in beer - sure. Community? Don't care. I'm a (would be, to some extent) user of Open Solaris. I don't care about developer love-ins. If you want a great big commune then great, but please differentiate by keeping focuss on users. The comments of the election candidates over binary compatibility *are* very reassuring. >have some sense of community? (Chances are they never stopped >reading the email, etc, they just stopped being really active.) So? Unless they manage a datacentre or otherwise buy or specify, they're just Joe Public. Do you really *need* the ones who have that responsibility and flunk it to choose based on years-ago amateur hacking relationships? >people but I can't see that happening. Linux's appeal is more >than just the GPL and failing to understand that will lead to >failed attempts to copy it. I don't want you to copy it. That's the point. The whole developer community focus is just that - focussed on developers. Its obvious that the users' needs are NOT foremost - look at the state of the documentation of the majority of projects. Precious few even have a clear statement of the problem they are trying to solve. >I don't know any open source developers who would consider >the needs of users as being unimportant. The point of my >comment (which you seen to have missed) isn't that developers >are more important than users but that open source projects >dont need managers, directors, VPs, etc, to drive them and I disagree. Someone needs to tell the 'freedom' zealots that users generally want 'Just Works' and don't care if the code was compiled by nVidia and shipped as a blob. Now I appreciate that Theo makes a good point - for a particular scenario of an auditable security device. But I'm quite happy to use XP for my convenience and a POSIX system where that makes sense. >developers than its users, you'd be in for a rough ride. Really? I've been asked to find the bug and send a patch rather than been given any constructive help many times. The point is made as 'we are all volunteers'. Well, I just don't care - if you are part of the 'we make the OS' crowd then saying that to the 'we use the OS' crowd doesn't cut it. The compensation arrangements inside the 'we make the OS' crowd is really not my business, and I don't see why my expectation of an OS product should be clouded by it. >What you're confusing here is what OpenSolaris is with what >Solaris is. That is the extent to which Open Solaris is of any interest, yes. Solaris, but more malleable and open (as opposed to 'opaque'). For playtime I have Ubuntu, FreeBSD, and NetBSD. For work, I need something better. >it by normal means is fraught and that it needs to live for a >lot longer yet before anyone can even attempt to judge it. On this, I agree completely. James -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.9/719 - Release Date: 12/03/2007 08:41 _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list [email protected]
