Re: Linus Torvolds on open source
Jules wrote:
>
> In a recent interview, he said:
>
>
> "I think the real issue about adoption of open source is that nobody can
> really ever “design” a complex system. That’s simply not how things work:
> people
> aren’t that smart - nobody is. And what open source allows is to not actually
> “design” things, but let them evolve, through lots of different pressures in
> the market, and having the end result just continually improve.
>
> And doing so in the open, and allowing all these different entities to
> cross-pollinate
> their ideas with each other, and not having arbitrary boundaries with NDA’s
> and “you cannot look at how we did this”, is just a better way.
>
> I compare it with science and witchcraft (or alchemy). Science may take
> a few hundred years to figure out how the world works, but it does actually
> get there, exactly because people can build on each others knowledge, and it
> evolves over time. In contrast, witchcraft/alchemy may be about smart people,
> but the knowledge body never “accumulates” anywhere. It might be passed down
> to an apprentice, but the hiding of information basically means that it can
> never really become any better than what a single person/company can
> understand.
>
> And that’s exactly the same issue with open source vs proprietary
> products.
> The proprietary people can design something that is smart, but it eventually
> becomes too complicated for a single entity (even a large company) to really
> understand and drive, and the company politics and the goals of that company
> will always limit it.
>
> In contrast, open source works well in a complex environment. Maybe nobody
> at all understands the big picture, but evolution doesn’t require global
> understanding,
> it just requires small local improvements and a open market (”survival of the
> fittest”).
>
> So I think a lot of companies are slowly starting to adopt more open
> source,
> simply because they see these things that work, and they realize that they
> would
> have a hard time duplicating it on their own. Do they really buy into my world
> view? Probably not. But they can see it working for individual projects."
>
> I agree 100%. Maybe open source isn't so bad, after all. :)
Hi there,
Every programmer loves open source unless it's their own creation
sometimes. I'd like to see MS Windows (XP, Vista) go open source (ha ha).
Take care,
Al
E boa sorte com sua programacao Euphoria!
My bumper sticker: "I brake for LED's"
From "Black Knight":
"I can live with losing the good fight,
but i can not live without fighting it".
"Well on second thought, maybe not."
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