This is a really good response, thank you! Very quickly, just to define some terms for readers:
meme - unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another
opportunity cost - value of all the other goods or services that we must give up in order to produce a particular good or service
So, the argument goes that the skill sets of individual developers don't typically encompass those needed for desktop applications, enterprise applications and embedded applications. Also unstated, but I'm sure the author would agree, since open source is about freedom and creativity, why should anyone be limited in their creative expression?
At the individual developer level, I completely agree. The best thing about the open source development process is that you can work on what you know and love in a community of like-minded individuals. That's such a basic aspect of open source development that it could never be taken away and doesn't even need to be promoted. Taking the community out of open source would be about as easily done and well received as taking the sun out of summer.
So I'm not really worried about the future of development of Linux applications on the PC for the forseeable future. As long as there is open source and as long as there are desktops, there will be be open source applications for the desktop.
I'm actually more concerned with changing the meme because of it impact on future opportunity cost. Most people who develop skills that apply to the desktop do so because of the current meme that says that's where the action is. However, that meme came into the open source culture from another, different, and one might even say more hostile culture of proprietary software development.
I think there is a lost opportunity cost, not in current skills, but in future skills. I've been programming for a good long time now and programming skills are veryportable. The basic software development skills like research, assessment, planning, manangement, and quality assurance are directly transferable. As are more refined software skills like OOP and UML. Then there are just the details involved in moving to a different language and learning the idiosyncrasies, which usually boils down to 'its a lot like c, but you<nobr> <wbr></nobr>...'.
And its not that big of a jump from the desktop to the device, at least not across the board. I went from writing to the desktop to writing for devices in about two weeks with MS VS. Even if you knew no more than VB, you've been able to go from the desktop to the web to the enterprise to the device with little more than a $50 Wrox book. Once the environment changes, it will be very easy in that platform to move with that change. And that's why I'm concerned with changing the meme of the Linux community so that we can be in the same position.
I think the Windows desktop environment that we're familiar with now is moving on. I say this because Bill is saying this. The market has bottomed out on the way things are now with hardware and software and there needs to be a new way if only to sell more stuff. I think the more platforms that Linux works on, the better, but the prevailing meme says that the PC desktop should be the platform of choice because it is today.
And its not that I want to change individual developers. They would change with the community, which will follow its leaders. Everyone doing their own thing isn't great for Linux as a whole. In other posts, I've shown how many projects fail. And its not true that this happens in the proprietary world. You don't get start-up capital, rent space, hire employees, and then wander off to do something else. However, this happens all the time on sourceforge. Its the nature of community-driven software. This is why I'm not a fan of Linux trying to conquer every single market at the same time. Conquer one at a time. Or at least conquer one to begin with. The point is to steer the community in a direction through the community leaders so that the projects have a tendency to point in a productive direction.
The more people stop looking towards what is done already and start looking towards what could be done in the future, the better chance Linux has to survive and prosper. Not just as a community of developers, that's forever now, but as a significant if not dominant programming force. Open source development could be a meme as pervasive as closed source development, but not in an environment where there has to be relearning.
I think the current meme of battling MS for desktop supremacy as it exists today is innapropriate because its someone else's meme and that following it would be shooting ourselves in the foot. Fight your conditioned response, move forward instead of staying still, following your skills to stay free and keep an eye on community leaders like Red Hat to stay focused.
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Re:Chicken and the Egg Problem
Posted by: DCallaghan on July 25, 2002 08:11 AMmeme - unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another
opportunity cost - value of all the other goods or services that we must give up in order to produce a particular good or service
So, the argument goes that the skill sets of individual developers don't typically encompass those needed for desktop applications, enterprise applications and embedded applications. Also unstated, but I'm sure the author would agree, since open source is about freedom and creativity, why should anyone be limited in their creative expression?
At the individual developer level, I completely agree. The best thing about the open source development process is that you can work on what you know and love in a community of like-minded individuals. That's such a basic aspect of open source development that it could never be taken away and doesn't even need to be promoted. Taking the community out of open source would be about as easily done and well received as taking the sun out of summer.
So I'm not really worried about the future of development of Linux applications on the PC for the forseeable future. As long as there is open source and as long as there are desktops, there will be be open source applications for the desktop.
I'm actually more concerned with changing the meme because of it impact on future opportunity cost. Most people who develop skills that apply to the desktop do so because of the current meme that says that's where the action is. However, that meme came into the open source culture from another, different, and one might even say more hostile culture of proprietary software development.
I think there is a lost opportunity cost, not in current skills, but in future skills. I've been programming for a good long time now and programming skills are veryportable. The basic software development skills like research, assessment, planning, manangement, and quality assurance are directly transferable. As are more refined software skills like OOP and UML. Then there are just the details involved in moving to a different language and learning the idiosyncrasies, which usually boils down to 'its a lot like c, but you<nobr> <wbr></nobr>...'.
And its not that big of a jump from the desktop to the device, at least not across the board. I went from writing to the desktop to writing for devices in about two weeks with MS VS. Even if you knew no more than VB, you've been able to go from the desktop to the web to the enterprise to the device with little more than a $50 Wrox book. Once the environment changes, it will be very easy in that platform to move with that change. And that's why I'm concerned with changing the meme of the Linux community so that we can be in the same position.
I think the Windows desktop environment that we're familiar with now is moving on. I say this because Bill is saying this. The market has bottomed out on the way things are now with hardware and software and there needs to be a new way if only to sell more stuff. I think the more platforms that Linux works on, the better, but the prevailing meme says that the PC desktop should be the platform of choice because it is today.
And its not that I want to change individual developers. They would change with the community, which will follow its leaders. Everyone doing their own thing isn't great for Linux as a whole. In other posts, I've shown how many projects fail. And its not true that this happens in the proprietary world. You don't get start-up capital, rent space, hire employees, and then wander off to do something else. However, this happens all the time on sourceforge. Its the nature of community-driven software. This is why I'm not a fan of Linux trying to conquer every single market at the same time. Conquer one at a time. Or at least conquer one to begin with. The point is to steer the community in a direction through the community leaders so that the projects have a tendency to point in a productive direction.
The more people stop looking towards what is done already and start looking towards what could be done in the future, the better chance Linux has to survive and prosper. Not just as a community of developers, that's forever now, but as a significant if not dominant programming force. Open source development could be a meme as pervasive as closed source development, but not in an environment where there has to be relearning.
I think the current meme of battling MS for desktop supremacy as it exists today is innapropriate because its someone else's meme and that following it would be shooting ourselves in the foot. Fight your conditioned response, move forward instead of staying still, following your skills to stay free and keep an eye on community leaders like Red Hat to stay focused.
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