[OSGeo-Discuss] Open Source development metrics

[P Kishor]

On 5/28/08, Jeroen Ticheler <Jeroen.Ticheler at fao.org> wrote:
> Hmmm, I tend to strongly disagree here. Forking indeed can prevent a lock-in
> if that is becoming a serious issue in the project. Otherwise it just causes
> lots of duplication of efforts and dilution of energy into different forked
> versions.

I think you agreed with me above. Forking for the heck of it is bad.
Having the ability to fork, when forking becomes necessary, can be
heaven-sent.

I am not advocating to go make your own version of the beast. I am
saying -- look, don't treat open source any different. Make it
mainstream. Use it to solve your own specific problem. Trying to
create open source to solve the world's problem is a sure recipe for
failure. Of course, it just might happen that your own problem might
also be the problem for many others in the world. In which case,
donate your work back to open source so others may benefit. And, don't
worry about forking. Given that most problems faced by most folks are
likely to be mostly similar, your solution would likely work for
someone else as well.

Very Darwinian, no?




>
>  It also does not help the average user much in selecting what's good for
> him/her. I think that Ubuntu as a popular release is one of the proofs that
> too much choice does not help to reach the large crowd. By limiting the
> installed default software packages they quickly reached a huge user group.
>
>  My 2 cents, ciao,
>  Jeroen
>
>  On May 28, 2008, at 12:01 PM, P Kishor wrote:
>
>
> > Forking is not a bad thing. I have no idea why it is viewed as such.
> > Forking is one of the beauties of open source, brings diversity in the
> > code base, and even ensures longevity. The ability to fork is what
> > ensures that in open source there will not be any lock-in.
> >
> > The beauty of this approach is the open source is not treated as
> > something special. It becomes as normal as non-open source software.
> > ..



-- 
Puneet Kishor http://punkish.eidesis.org/
Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/
Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) http://www.osgeo.org/