On Fri, 2010-07-16 at 11:43 -0600, Roger Brown wrote: > I agree, if it wasn't for the AT&T lawsuit we would probably all be > running some BSD flavor today.
*sigh* I'm tired of this meme. It should have died years ago. Attributing the success of the Linux kernel to lucky timing is myopic. It ignores the importance of the GPL in encouraging contributions during a time when many people didn't userstand F/OSS development or believe that it was possible to write significant software under a BSD license without it getting hijacked by powerful corporate interests. It ignore the disadvantages to BSD's more heavy weight and bureaucratic approach to coordination. Perhaps Linus Torvald's greatest contribution is not Linux or git but demonstrating that large software projects can be loosely coordinated, innovate quickly, and still maintain an impressive quality level. (In fact, it's starting to look like the Linux development model is the only viable model for very large projects to achieve success. Remember the train wreck that was Vista? Microsoft attributed much of their failure to too much project coordination overhead. There response was increased decentralization, producing marked improvement in Windows 7.) Let's not forget that Linux has gone through periods of significant growing pain. Anyone remember the shameful early days of the 2.4 kernel? If ever there were a time for one of the BSDs to step up and replace Linux, that was it. Lucky timing might have given Linux a boost, but it doesn't explain why none of the BSDs could retake the lead despite having arguably better technology at times. -- Stuart Jansen <sjan...@buscaluz.org> /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
