[vox] [fwd] KQED program on open source [last night]

[Richard Crawford]

Bill Kendrick said:
> On Thu, Jun 03, 2004 at 10:05:29AM -0700, Richard Crawford wrote:
>> Last night at Borders in Davis I picked up _The Success of Open
>> Source_ by the same guy, Stephen Weber.  It looked interesting.  I've
>> only read a couple of chapters, but I'm intrigued so far.  Has anyone
>> else read this book?
>
> Hadn't even heard of it!  Or him, (I don't _think_)

He's a political scientist, not a computer scientists, so he has a really
interesting perspective on the issues.


>> One point he brings up which I'm not sure about.  He states that it's
>> impossible, these days, for a single individual to write an entire
>> operating system from scratch (though he doesn't hint that it was
>> impossible in 1991).
>
> Define "operating system."  Sheesh.  :^P

Sorry.  Here's exactly what he says (p. 10):

"There was a time when a single determined individual could write the core
of a simple operating system for a primitive computer.  But given the
demands of computer applications and the capabilities of hardware
technology at present, that is no longer conceivable."


>
>> I have no way of knowing whether that claim is true or not.
>
> I agree with the claim on one hand:
>
>   Mozilla + KDE + OpenOffice.org + Linux kernel + tools + other stuff
> Hard for one person to make that.
>
>   Windows is pretty much all that same stuff jammed in it, except not as
> good (Internet Exporer (piece of crap), horrible window manager,
>   virus-propagating office suite, a kernel, tools, and other stuff) Hard
> for one person to make that, either.
>
> On the other hand, a basic kernel for a small embedded device...
> even something like the older Palm OS?  Sure, I can see one person
> writing that, _including_ the GUI widgets, API, SDK, etc.  It'd _take_ a
> while, but it's not impossible.

See above.  :-)  Sorry for the confusion.


-- 
Sláinte,
Richard S. Crawford (AIM: Buffalo2K)
http://www.mossroot.com   http://www.stonegoose.com/catseyeview
"You cannot trust your judgement if your imagination is out of focus." 
--Mark Twain