Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: A bad habit of the Open Source culture

Author:John Jensen
Posted:8/3/1999; 7:46:01 AM
Topic:Microsoft response to Instant Messaging
Msg #:9057 (In response to 9049)
Prev/Next:9056 / 9058

I've got ten-year old share applications that work just fine under MacOS 8.6.

Linux has had (to be brutal), a "don't carry the wounded" philosophy. In the eyes of the old-time Linux community, a ten year old Mac app with its CMT and use of out-dated APIs, would be wounded. In that philosophy, it is better to leave it and move on.

This has tremendous advantages for the evolution of the platform. Each revision is "better" in an aesthetic engineering sense, and unburdened by mistakes of the past.

Obviously some accomodation for users will have to be made. It may be that "compatibility libraries" will be offered as part of the standard install, or it may be that vendors will offer easy upgrades of their apps over the net.

From my standpoint, the win-win would be for everybody to move forward quickly, both the core developers and the users.

(As an aside, some worry that MS is carrying too many wounded APIs into Win2000 ... something to wait and see, perhaps.)

John

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