Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001 22:45:32 +0000 (GMT) From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> To: jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org (j mckitrick) Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: quote about open source Message-ID: <200102022245.PAA15968@usr08.primenet.com> In-Reply-To: <20010202140505.B91552@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> from "j mckitrick" at Feb 02, 2001 02:05:05 PM
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> I just read this remark by BEA Systems founder and former Sun VP William > Coleman III: > > `The second problem is, and this is my most controversial remark, open > source is the end of innovation and it's the end of innovation because > open source can't happen until it's so broadly understood what's going > on that the innovation has slowed down to incrementalism.'' > > This is the first comment of this type I have ever heard. Any thoughts? To a large extent, this is true, given the organizational structure of most large software projects. There's very little in FreeBSD and Linux that has not already been published in the literature a decade or more ago, even on the "cutting edge" stuff, like SMP, clustering, and threading. Most of the innovation in Open Source code is coming from research outside of the context of the projects themselves. I suspect that given any single newly implemented "innovation" you can name, I can find a literature reference over 5 years old, and some will be significantly older (perhaps a quarter century or more, in some cases). Open Source projects frequently discuss the evolution of their project; innovation really requires revolution, not evolution, for it to be innovation. Most innovation does not come out of the processes of large projects or companies, Open Source or commercial, academic or professional, research or project developement. It comes out of small groups, usually with 6 or fewer members, and usually driven by a goal that has been defined in advance. The small amount of innovation which doesn't fit this mold is accidental, serendipitous. If I had to give one sentence: Innovation is not organic; it is not an emergent property, which shows up after its precursors hit a critical mass, but is instead built with monumental intent. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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