Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

Dev.SN ♥ developers

What Happened to the Vision in Open Source?

posted by LaminatorX on Sunday March 23 2014, @03:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the Bizarre-Cathedrals dept.

An anonymous coward writes:

"An interesting article about the shift in open source from idealistic to pragmatic. The author compares the relative obscurity of FOSS software such as MediaGoblin and KDE's MakePlayLive co-op to commercial software. The article then goes on to discuss the split between FOSS's goal to provide freedom to users and to provide high-quality software. Also mentioned is the split between commercial and non-commercial FOSS."

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
What Happened to the Vision in Open Source? | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 1000 moderator points   | 55 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Sunday March 23 2014, @05:13PM

    by Tork (3914) on Sunday March 23 2014, @05:13PM (#19990)

    "Was there ever any vision?"

    I'm not sure what the official vision is but I knew a guy a years ago who worked for the Brazilian government. He wanted them to go Open Source on *everything* because the data they have belongs to the public. He didn't want to have files created 1990 to not be openable in 2010 because a company like Microsoft evolved its software too much. By keeping it Open Source, it could be maintained to their standards and not to those that a corporation creating off-the-shelf-software motivated by their own pocketbooks. This means the data that belongs to the public is never lost. I wouldn't be surprised if what you said about open versions of commercial stuff turned out to be true, that has already proven to be FOSS's strength. It's just not so hot at inventing new ... for lack of a better term... products. And that is kinda where the article was going.

    --
    Slashdolt logic: 1600 x 1200 > 1920 x 1200
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Insightful=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Total Score:   3  

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday March 23 2014, @10:33PM

    by c0lo (156) on Sunday March 23 2014, @10:33PM (#20051)

    It's just not so hot at inventing new ... for lack of a better term... products.

    You may be right... but only if you impose a restriction on where to look for the innovation in Open Source.

    If not accepting the restriction (and many, myself included, will find such a restriction as arbitrary and not relevant for assessing the usefulness and social impact) one can find heap of innovation. Examples:

    1. multipath TCP [wikipedia.org] - protocol - first release (together with the IETF spec [ietf.org]) as open source as a Linux driver in Jan 2013 [github.com], adopted in commercial env by Apple in Sep 2013 [uclouvain.be] (used for/by Siri)
    2. Bitttorent [wikipedia.org] - protocol and fist implementation in 2001 by Bram Cohen [wikipedia.org] - in 2009 amounts for 43% to 70% of Internet traffic (do I need to mention how many commercial entities [dailyapps.net] are using it?)
    3. Bitcoin - should I exemplify the social impact of it?
    4. the majority of NoSQL databases [wikipedia.org] were released and are available under Open Source licenses. Their social impact is quite high, even if they are not running as "products" on the end users machines
    5. [etc... one only need to refuse the horse blinders to find many examples]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24 2014, @01:58AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24 2014, @01:58AM (#20100)
      All of that is very pale in comparison to what happens in the commercial world. Money is a great motivator.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday March 24 2014, @02:19AM

        by c0lo (156) on Monday March 24 2014, @02:19AM (#20110)
        Do you often assess the success by the money rewards? Perchance, you always do so?
        If positive to the above, don't you ever wonder if there's nothing better as a measure of life fulfillment?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24 2014, @09:07PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24 2014, @09:07PM (#20664)

          > Do you often assess the success by the money rewards?

          No, and I did not here, either. Nice attempt at a dodge, though.

          • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday March 24 2014, @11:58PM

            by c0lo (156) on Monday March 24 2014, @11:58PM (#20764)

            No, and I did not here, either.

            Good to hear.

            Nice attempt at a dodge, though.

            I didn't dodge (at least, wasn't not my intention).
            Just wanted to suggest (coming from the "personal angle") that: while money can be a powerful motivation, it is not the only one - and sometimes not even the most powerful.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 25 2014, @01:25PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 25 2014, @01:25PM (#21076)
              Not sure what that has to do with the comment I did make.