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Hello Bob -

At 11:27 PM 9/22/2003 -0400, you wrote:

>"Charles Angelich" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > [...]
> > As the primary contributor (referred to as a 'maintainer') of CoBBS for
> > the Radio Shack Color Computer I've been there, done that.
>
>A good point: "Contributing" doesn't always mean "programming".

In this case it did mean programming. :-)

>I put up my little free Cisco lab pod as my own contribution to
>others in part because of the debt I feel I owe to the
>contributions others have made to me over the years. And of
>course, I've learned lots in doing it.

My tech website is my 'contribution'.

> > >I think Stephen's BasicLinux is a good example of this. The lone codesmith
> > >can keep things running just fine.
> >
> > I would say that his determination to keep Eznet in the distribution even
> > though more than one person reported difficulties with it also proves that
> > it doesn't always work.
>
>Well, it works HIS way... he's the 'smith for that particular
>distribution after all!

This is one of the flaws of opensource.

>But anyone else can use the same codebase
>to tweak things to be their way as well. One thing I have seen a
>few times is a "dead" project being revived later by a volunteer,
>usually with the blessings of the original developer.

I've also seen dead projects revived _without_ those blessing (recently).

>A refreshing change from the experience of being abandoned by commercial
>houses
>when a product line is dropped, or fails commercially. With Open
>Source, the motivators are different than in the commercial world,
>and I like the fact that a "neat" project can continue without
>appealing to the masses. There's a bit of Darwin as well, where
>projects that product software that works succeed, where those
>that don't quietly fade away -- without any sort of media blitz
>and glossy magazine ads telling us that it just ain't so.

The ebb and flow of life was not invented by opensource.

>Hell, someone's probably dreaming up something using vi as the
>user interface, just because they can!

Not sure I can celibrate a total waste of time/effort but yes I suppose
someone might do that.

Over the years many 'projects' have failed even though they 'suceeded' at
their professed goals.  What I have observed is a lack of recognition for
those who contribute the time/effort and they burn out.  Torvalds and
Stallman get recognition without having to touch a keyboard, the ones
actually doing the coding seldom do get recognition.

Charles.Angelich
http:/www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/

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