Peeve Farm

g r o t t o 1 1

Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets

  Blog \Blôg\, n. [Jrg, fr. Jrg. "Web-log".
     See {Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal}.]
     A stream-of-consciousness Web journal, containing
     links, commentary, and pointless drivel.

On My Blog Menu:

InstaPundit
USS Clueless
James Lileks
Little Green Footballs
As the Apple Turns
Entropicana
Cold Fury
Capitalist Lion
Red Letter Day
Eric S. Raymond
Tal G in Jerusalem
Secular Islam
Aziz Poonawalla
Corsair the Rational Pirate
.clue

« ? Blogging Brians # »

Book Plug:

Buy it and I get
money. I think.
BSD Mall

10/6/2003 -  10/8/2003
9/29/2003 -  10/5/2003
9/22/2003 -  9/28/2003
9/15/2003 -  9/21/2003
  9/8/2003 -  9/14/2003
  9/1/2003 -   9/7/2003
8/25/2003 -  8/31/2003
8/18/2003 -  8/24/2003
8/11/2003 -  8/17/2003
  8/4/2003 -  8/10/2003
7/28/2003 -   8/3/2003
7/21/2003 -  7/27/2003
7/14/2003 -  7/20/2003
  7/7/2003 -  7/13/2003
6/30/2003 -   7/6/2003
6/23/2003 -  6/29/2003
6/16/2003 -  6/22/2003
  6/9/2003 -  6/15/2003
  6/2/2003 -   6/8/2003
5/26/2003 -   6/1/2003
5/19/2003 -  5/25/2003
5/12/2003 -  5/18/2003
  5/5/2003 -  5/11/2003
4/28/2003 -   5/4/2003
4/21/2003 -  4/27/2003
4/14/2003 -  4/20/2003
  4/7/2003 -  4/13/2003
3/31/2003 -   4/6/2003
3/24/2003 -  3/30/2003
3/17/2003 -  3/23/2003
3/10/2003 -  3/16/2003
  3/3/2003 -   3/9/2003
2/24/2003 -   3/2/2003
2/17/2003 -  2/23/2003
2/10/2003 -  2/16/2003
  2/3/2003 -   2/9/2003
1/27/2003 -   2/2/2003
1/20/2003 -  1/26/2003
1/13/2003 -  1/19/2003
  1/6/2003 -  1/12/2003
12/30/2002 -   1/5/2003
12/23/2002 - 12/29/2002
12/16/2002 - 12/22/2002
12/9/2002 - 12/15/2002
12/2/2002 -  12/8/2002
11/25/2002 -  12/1/2002
11/18/2002 - 11/24/2002
11/11/2002 - 11/17/2002
11/4/2002 - 11/10/2002
10/28/2002 -  11/3/2002
10/21/2002 - 10/27/2002
10/14/2002 - 10/20/2002
10/7/2002 - 10/13/2002
9/30/2002 -  10/6/2002
9/23/2002 -  9/29/2002
9/16/2002 -  9/22/2002
  9/9/2002 -  9/15/2002
  9/2/2002 -   9/8/2002
8/26/2002 -   9/1/2002
8/19/2002 -  8/25/2002
8/12/2002 -  8/18/2002
  8/5/2002 -  8/11/2002
7/29/2002 -   8/4/2002
7/22/2002 -  7/28/2002
7/15/2002 -  7/21/2002
  7/8/2002 -  7/14/2002
  7/1/2002 -   7/7/2002
6/24/2002 -  6/30/2002
6/17/2002 -  6/23/2002
6/10/2002 -  6/16/2002
  6/3/2002 -   6/9/2002
5/27/2002 -   6/2/2002
5/20/2002 -  5/26/2002
5/13/2002 -  5/19/2002
  5/6/2002 -  5/12/2002
4/29/2002 -   5/5/2002
4/22/2002 -  4/28/2002
4/15/2002 -  4/21/2002
  4/8/2002 -  4/14/2002
  4/1/2002 -   4/7/2002
3/25/2002 -  3/31/2002
3/18/2002 -  3/24/2002
3/11/2002 -  3/17/2002
  3/4/2002 -  3/10/2002
2/25/2002 -   3/3/2002
2/18/2002 -  2/24/2002
2/11/2002 -  2/17/2002
  2/4/2002 -  2/10/2002
1/28/2002 -   2/3/2002
1/21/2002 -  1/27/2002
1/14/2002 -  1/20/2002
  1/7/2002 -  1/13/2002
12/31/2001 -   1/6/2002
12/24/2001 - 12/30/2001
12/17/2001 - 12/23/2001

Thursday, July 25, 2002

01:58 - Those Poor Sods at VA
http://www.denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/07/LarryAugustinresigns.shtml

(top)

Just a couple of thoughts regarding Steven den Beste's latest post on VA Linux (or "VA Research/Linux/Software", or whatever they're officially called these days):

VA Software (no longer "VA Linux" although embarrassingly their stock symbol remains LNUX)...

This drew a cruel laugh from me. Remember, back in 1999, how proud VA was to get the "LNUX" stock symbol? Remember how very very proud? Remember how much of a coup it was-- how many different Linux upstarts had tried for it in their IPOs, and how much of the hype over VA stemmed specifically from the fact that they won the ticker race?

And now it's an embarrassment. Boy.

Which leads, inevitably, to the question: what effect would it have on the Open Source Movement if SourceForge shut down? Will a sugar-daddy step in to pick up the expenses? IBM could pay for it out of pocket-change, but does IBM care enough to do so?

And how will geeks survive without SlashDot?

No, I don't think that progress and development would stop if SourceForge shuts down. But OSS would surely be seriously inconvenienced without that service.

Inconvenienced-- possibly. I'm not so sure about it, really. SourceForge has the advantage of centralization, and that most of the organizational work is already done for the members. Open-source software development has never really had those things as its Achilles' heel, though. The Apache Project has successfully operated for many, many years without SourceForge; so has FreeBSD, and so in fact have most of the OSS projects that matter. The guys who develop such things tend to have no problem with tacking together their own source-control back-ends and distribution systems, and they tend to have ways of financing such ventures. SourceForge serves a fairly limited purpose, and if it were to vanish, I don't think too many people would really notice.

Same with Slashdot. Slashdot operated just fine for years before they were part of VA. It's just a website; it could be successfully run from any reasonable co-lo facility with pretty modest funding. It's just a matter of infrastructure ownership; to the users, it's all the same stuff. Who provides the bandwidth doesn't tend to matter much.

SourceForge and Slashdot are about as important to the OSS community as BlogSpot is to the blogosphere. It's a nice thing to have around, and it's certainly played its part in helping the phenomenon rise. But if it were to vanish, it wouldn't destroy the blogging movement. Someone else would rise to provide the same service, or the bloggers would just find or create alternative solutions. Just as destroying the WTC is not the same thing as destroying America-- or, for that matter, just as killing bin Laden is not the same thing as destroying militant Islam-- it's just a visible manifestation of the phenomenon. It has no significance in and of itself, beyond some legacy emotional attachments.

VA Linux was a poster-boy for the dot-com bubble; but the open-source movement predates the bubble and exists outside it. Linux didn't have to grow up during the period of unbridled optimism in technology-- it could have happened during any point in history. The goals are far different. The dot-coms wanted money, whether the services they offered made any sense or not. The open-source guys just want to create free functionality, which means that what they do has to be useful or else it has no point in existing.

It's just that when the twain doth meet that an unholy, unclassifiable, inherently unprofitable beast is created.

Note, by the way, the interesting way Apple has blended open-source and commercial development-- fostering free/shareware OSS development by third parties by distributing the dev tools and Darwin, but keeping the "secret sauce" by selling the computers and controlling the APIs. As Paul says, "Geeks might not be entirely happy with it, and vendors might not be entirely happy with it, but everyone gets SOMEthing the apple way."