Sunday, January 27, 2008

27
Jan
2008
What open source is about
Posted by Eugene Lazutkin in General::Rants

F/OSS is a phenomenon of the modern life. But what makes it successful? Ben Laurie is convinced that Open Source Is Just Economics. I beg to differ. Yes, it does make sense for several companies to gang together and develop something jointly. And they did it for years without the open source. Not always successfully, but they did it. For example, IBM has cooperated with Microsoft on OS/2 back in the days, and there are more examples. What makes OSS so special? Ben's post has links to other possible reasons. But I think I know the answer: global meritocracy in informal communities— this is the mythical secret ingredient, which holds the whole system together.

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