Comments on: Why not open source http://rohitj.net/blog/2009/03/10/why-not-open-source/ Yet more clitches Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:29:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: admin http://rohitj.net/blog/2009/03/10/why-not-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-5918 admin Wed, 17 Nov 2010 18:10:32 +0000 http://rohitj.net/blog/?p=89#comment-5918 Your concerns are genuine. However, there are few more things to consider here. There are 2/3 levels at which open source software development happens (in general). One is Kernel, second is libraries and third is GUI. Most of the Linux distributions you are talking about (like CentOS or Ubuntu) have kernels and libraries common. The command that you talk about are built above them. Hence, there isn't that much work being spent on forking things. Second point is, that a major idea behind open source is that a person/community should be able to do things the way they want. That is why, there are many forks of different open source softwares. Not everyone can have same ideas and thoughts, and hence we can not work towards same direction unless we force them, which is not desired. About Android. You gave iPhone OS as an example. You should also observe that since iPhone is closed source, the only hardware it is used on is iPhone. Isn't that bad? Also, if LG or Samsung decided to change Android GUI a lot, its not open source's fault. Its rather good, because then we see many people trying their creativity to come up with different styles. In an ideal world, you want to cultivate the tendency of letting creativity flow the way it wants to flow, and open source is doing that. About stability: I am sure if we make Linux based distributions restrictive (like iPhone did when they said no more than one application can run at a time), it will be much more stable. A major reason behind instability of these softwares is that it gives full freedom to users. Also, these softwares are not as unstable as you think they are. Look at Apache, Linux, mysql, postgres.... they are most popular softwares in server market, which has been pretty much the main target for these softwares so far. Your concerns are genuine. However, there are few more things to consider here. There are 2/3 levels at which open source software development happens (in general). One is Kernel, second is libraries and third is GUI. Most of the Linux distributions you are talking about (like CentOS or Ubuntu) have kernels and libraries common. The command that you talk about are built above them. Hence, there isn’t that much work being spent on forking things.

Second point is, that a major idea behind open source is that a person/community should be able to do things the way they want. That is why, there are many forks of different open source softwares. Not everyone can have same ideas and thoughts, and hence we can not work towards same direction unless we force them, which is not desired.

About Android. You gave iPhone OS as an example. You should also observe that since iPhone is closed source, the only hardware it is used on is iPhone. Isn’t that bad? Also, if LG or Samsung decided to change Android GUI a lot, its not open source’s fault. Its rather good, because then we see many people trying their creativity to come up with different styles. In an ideal world, you want to cultivate the tendency of letting creativity flow the way it wants to flow, and open source is doing that.

About stability: I am sure if we make Linux based distributions restrictive (like iPhone did when they said no more than one application can run at a time), it will be much more stable. A major reason behind instability of these softwares is that it gives full freedom to users. Also, these softwares are not as unstable as you think they are. Look at Apache, Linux, mysql, postgres…. they are most popular softwares in server market, which has been pretty much the main target for these softwares so far.

]]> By: Arjun Gupta http://rohitj.net/blog/2009/03/10/why-not-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-5581 Arjun Gupta Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:12:46 +0000 http://rohitj.net/blog/?p=89#comment-5581 Hi bhaiya, wassup. Although open-source softwares are free (the best part) and can be modified (well i dont use this feature), I have a small query regarding the Open Source softwares. Don't you think open source software are fragmented, in the sense that every community tries to make their own platform rather working on a integrated approach. I think developers will be more innovative if they can target a singular platform rather than 100 variants. Is open source community having a answer to this? I got this as I see that Android is open-source but its different on different phones, means not all phones would be able to run all the apps. LG uses different android version, Samsung uses different. Atleast when it comes to phones I think iPhone OS and Windows Mobile OS is far better than Android. They are closed source, expensive but are stable which makes it worth the premium. Also when it comes to PC, learning Linux is also a bit trouble as Ubuntu uses different sets of commands and CentOS uses different, maybe that's the reason why Windows is still a clear winner. Hi bhaiya, wassup.
Although open-source softwares are free (the best part) and can be modified (well i dont use this feature), I have a small query regarding the Open Source softwares. Don’t you think open source software are fragmented, in the sense that every community tries to make their own platform rather working on a integrated approach.
I think developers will be more innovative if they can target a singular platform rather than 100 variants.
Is open source community having a answer to this?
I got this as I see that Android is open-source but its different on different phones, means not all phones would be able to run all the apps. LG uses different android version, Samsung uses different. Atleast when it comes to phones I think iPhone OS and Windows Mobile OS is far better than Android. They are closed source, expensive but are stable which makes it worth the premium.
Also when it comes to PC, learning Linux is also a bit trouble as Ubuntu uses different sets of commands and CentOS uses different, maybe that’s the reason why Windows is still a clear winner.

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