Eugene Leitl wrote:
> Adrian Tymes writes:
>
> > If a large number of the developers get dissatisfied with the decisions
> > of the manager, any of the developers can take the code base and fork
> > it. The central manager would have to screw up big time in order to
> > provoke such a reaction, but it is possible - and that, alone, can keep
> > the manager honest.
>
> Yes, but then we're talking about two different projects. Since the
> fork was provoked by a screwup on manager's part, one of them seems
> destined to crash and burn. There *are* a number of OpenSource
> screwups out there.
>
> > > Anarchic software development does not work.
> >
> > Define "anarchic". No body of law ties, say, Linux developers to Linus
>
> Headless. No central arbitrator. Everybody can touch everything, and
> distribute the end result under the same name. I'm not saying it can't
> work theoretically, but lacking angels it doesn't seem to work in
> practice.
>
> > Torvaldis. Linus can not hire or fire developers; he can only make
> > acceptance of their code more or less likely. (He can't even absolutely
>
> A great damn deal more or less likely. You try putting something into
> the kernel what Linus (or Alan Cox, or any of the core team) thinks is
> wrong.
>
> > reject software on his own, though his negative review can go a long way
> > towards rejecting certain code.) Promises, trust, and working code are
>
> Code that works for you might not work for me, and vice
> versa. Architectural decisions are frequently incompatible.
>
> > all that unify the developers - and this lack of law is, technically,
> > "anarchy", in the form that some promoters of anarchy envision as their
> > utopia.
>
> I still see no evidence that there are nontrivial OpenSource projects
> which work by pure anarchy. Can you name an example?
The Internet as it is today has no particular guiding body, and every
commercial, public, or otherwise private concern taking part in it simply
adheres to standards to the extent that they choose interoperability with
others.
As to whether the Internet is "Open Source", there are open source applications
for almost every standard used upon the Internet, whether the standards are due
to current working bodies or the result of the anarchic, innovative ideas that
were used at its inception and during its development..
An "Open Source" project might be anarchic, and there are many various coding
and software design habits, but they are almost always built to a standard or
specification, and the end result of any software design and implementation
process either fits the specification or does not.
Ross
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:38:30 MDT