Sunday, April 15, 2007
How Many Open Source Devotees Does It Take to Screw a Newbie?
Bruce Eisner's excellent post on the frustrations of customizing server-side Open Source software inspired the following rant:
I feel your pain, Bruce.
I love the spirit of Open Source almost as much as I hate the execution. As a Linux user and Ruby / PHP "weekend code warrior" for several years, I don't go to the user groups any more looking for the future. Most of the people I meet in those groups or discussion forums are full of people who long for the days when only geeks could use computers.
Sure, Apache is incredibly stable. So is my TI30 calculator. And please don't try to tell me why using vi to shellscript a bad blackjack game is good for my character.
I cringe now when I read about Mambo, Drupal, and similar web applications as leading the way for a post-Microsoft world. While I have had issues with Microsoft (as any user facing a blue screen will), using hatred of one company as the primary driving force for developing an alternative seems to be short-sighted and depressing.
As I can already feel the flames heat up, Microsoft's Expression Web product is the best tool out there today for building standards-compliant, server-driven web applications in my opinion. A step in the right direction, it also has a long way to go before non-programmers can build something useful without contemplating suicide or murder (or both).
My guess is that the future of Open Source will soon be in better hands when a million or more kids in "developing" (read poor) nations like Rwanda, India, and Uruguay build ad hoc wireless networks between their One Hundred Dollar laptops. I hope they will want to talk with us (and maybe develop server-side tools that I would risk putting in front of my children).
I feel your pain, Bruce.
I love the spirit of Open Source almost as much as I hate the execution. As a Linux user and Ruby / PHP "weekend code warrior" for several years, I don't go to the user groups any more looking for the future. Most of the people I meet in those groups or discussion forums are full of people who long for the days when only geeks could use computers.
Sure, Apache is incredibly stable. So is my TI30 calculator. And please don't try to tell me why using vi to shellscript a bad blackjack game is good for my character.
I cringe now when I read about Mambo, Drupal, and similar web applications as leading the way for a post-Microsoft world. While I have had issues with Microsoft (as any user facing a blue screen will), using hatred of one company as the primary driving force for developing an alternative seems to be short-sighted and depressing.
As I can already feel the flames heat up, Microsoft's Expression Web product is the best tool out there today for building standards-compliant, server-driven web applications in my opinion. A step in the right direction, it also has a long way to go before non-programmers can build something useful without contemplating suicide or murder (or both).
My guess is that the future of Open Source will soon be in better hands when a million or more kids in "developing" (read poor) nations like Rwanda, India, and Uruguay build ad hoc wireless networks between their One Hundred Dollar laptops. I hope they will want to talk with us (and maybe develop server-side tools that I would risk putting in front of my children).
Comments:
<< Home
Most of the people I meet in those groups or discussion forums are full of people who long for the days when only geeks could use computers.
There are those kind of people everywhere.
The only difference is that the open-source communities are very transparent (actually I can't imagine how more transparent they could be). You don't need to have a permit or an expensive certificate to become a part of the open-source community.
Now, you could learn to live with that (like you learned to deal with school bullies) or you can blame it on the whole society - or just the open-source community :). Your choice.
PS. I've met briliant people in the open-source community, people more that happy to help you learn and share their knowledge, and not only about the imidiate problems you might have. I've met them both online but also some personally. And you don't get this in the proprietary world.
Post a Comment
There are those kind of people everywhere.
The only difference is that the open-source communities are very transparent (actually I can't imagine how more transparent they could be). You don't need to have a permit or an expensive certificate to become a part of the open-source community.
Now, you could learn to live with that (like you learned to deal with school bullies) or you can blame it on the whole society - or just the open-source community :). Your choice.
PS. I've met briliant people in the open-source community, people more that happy to help you learn and share their knowledge, and not only about the imidiate problems you might have. I've met them both online but also some personally. And you don't get this in the proprietary world.
<< Home
