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

Re: Thoughts on ESR and Perl

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:8/27/1999; 5:16:54 AM
Topic:Opening Up Linux Journal and O'Reilly
Msg #:10084 (In response to 10076)
Prev/Next:10083 / 10085

That was my view too. He was describing, in an incomplete way, how I work. And I was puzzled about how anyone could assure any kind of quality if anyone could check in changes. Later I found out that the open source world isn't that open. There are dictators who add quality assurance and a consistent vision.

The only difference I can see is that they don't get paid for their work. Well, if the truth be told, at the time I wasn't get paid for my work either. In fact, I have paid several million dollars for the priviledge of creating Frontier. (Money that went to developers who didn't take an oath of poverty. This is reasonable since they have houses and/or families, and are in high demand.)

So ESR's piece was a real bummer. He lumped me in with a company that I also see as dangerous. Painted me and every other hard-working software guy as corrupt. And of course Business Week, WSJ, etc and all the stupid VCs proclaim him as a hero. I think he's an asshole, selling us out, so he can make a few headlines or bucks or whatever he's trying to get.

BTW, once quite a few years ago I put a copy of Frontier on the net and allowed anyone to check in changes. How long do you think it took before the server was broken?

(Answer: A couple of hours.)

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