Friday, May 02, 2003

I, Cringely: May the Source Be With You

I, Cringely: May the Source Be With You "Open Source software will survive because it is useful even if it is parted out. Those hijacked and abandoned Open Source projects I described last week will still be sitting somewhere, the source code available for anyone who needs it. Only the momentum and the easy familiarity of the original programmer will be missing. So in strict terms, Open Source will always be with us.
But it could be so much better. At the risk of annoying my two remaining technical readers, I believe Open Source suffers from a kind of unspoken caste system, with a few projects getting lots of resources and most other projects getting very little. The result is what I think of as three classes of Open Source software -- professional, semi-pro, and amateur. I’m not saying this is bad, just that it is the case."

More thoughtful Cringely analysis

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