Posted by: Administrator
on April 26, 2007 05:22 AM
Bob,
While it is true that Linux and OSS was largely dependent upon volunteer effort in the 1990s, it is largely about corporate sponsorship today. The barrier to entry is low, however, and anyone with the necessary skills can volunteer if they so desire. The volunteers are still a significant source of contributions. But the major projects: Linux, Samba, Cups, etc. along with the Distros themselves are pretty much covered by paid employees.
Also, I would caution you on judging OSS by its most vocal fans. Would one dislike the New York Jets based upon comments made by rabid fans? Would one find comments by rabid fans to be "revealing" about the New York Jets' players? Of course not.
Rest assured, that the majority of us are quite rational and would not consider launching personal attacks upon those who don't happen to agree with us. But most of us tend to be less vocal than a certain well meaning, but, lets say "over-enthusiastic", subset of the community.
And Bob, you should not be at all surprised to have received some pretty negative feedback. As I recall, you regularly acted in such childish ways as calling the "Open Source" movement the "Open Sores" movement. I put this in the same class as I do spelling Microsoft with a $. I think less of people in my own community who do that. And, likewise, I thought less of you for acting as you did. You really did set yourself up as a target, so please don't feign surprise at the response you got. This is not to say that I condone flames and personal attacks... but I think we've both been around the block enough times to know what to expect.
Good luck with your new undertaking. And I hope that perhaps in the future you might consider yourself a full-fledged member of our community.
I'm sure that you have a lot to contribute that would be greatly appreciated by the community, and which would benefit many people around the world.
But stay focused on the constructive feedback and ignore the flames. Life is too short not to focus on the constructive.
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A couple of points
Posted by: Administrator on April 26, 2007 05:22 AMWhile it is true that Linux and OSS was largely dependent upon volunteer effort in the 1990s, it is largely about corporate sponsorship today. The barrier to entry is low, however, and anyone with the necessary skills can volunteer if they so desire. The volunteers are still a significant source of contributions. But the major projects: Linux, Samba, Cups, etc. along with the Distros themselves are pretty much covered by paid employees.
Also, I would caution you on judging OSS by its most vocal fans. Would one dislike the New York Jets based upon comments made by rabid fans? Would one find comments by rabid fans to be "revealing" about the New York Jets' players? Of course not.
Rest assured, that the majority of us are quite rational and would not consider launching personal attacks upon those who don't happen to agree with us. But most of us tend to be less vocal than a certain well meaning, but, lets say "over-enthusiastic", subset of the community.
And Bob, you should not be at all surprised to have received some pretty negative feedback. As I recall, you regularly acted in such childish ways as calling the "Open Source" movement the "Open Sores" movement. I put this in the same class as I do spelling Microsoft with a $. I think less of people in my own community who do that. And, likewise, I thought less of you for acting as you did. You really did set yourself up as a target, so please don't feign surprise at the response you got. This is not to say that I condone flames and personal attacks... but I think we've both been around the block enough times to know what to expect.
Good luck with your new undertaking. And I hope that perhaps in the future you might consider yourself a full-fledged member of our community.
I'm sure that you have a lot to contribute that would be greatly appreciated by the community, and which would benefit many people around the world.
But stay focused on the constructive feedback and ignore the flames. Life is too short not to focus on the constructive.
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