Confessions of an Open Source Heretic
While climbing into his bathtub, Archimedes figured out how to tell whether the King's crown was made from non-precious metals. So he did what any dedicated researcher would do, he shouted Eureka! and ran through the streets in his birthday suit. (I also remember hearing somewhere that Eureka was Greek for "this water is too hot.")
doh! is the new Eureka.
It's taken me a while to grok the Open Source movement. Not because I haven't been exposed to it. Back in the late 80's or early 90's I read one of Richard Stallman's books about the Free Softaware Foundation, and promptly stuffed it next to "The Communist Manifesto" on my bookshelf. A clear case of Paley's condemnation prior to investigation, that phrase popularized by the friendly folks from A.A.
Shoot, I even wrote docs for a LISP IDE and an AI language and IDE based on the Symbolics systems. You'd think I would know better.
When I asked Jerry Jackson, an erstwhile Sun engineer I met while he was practicing the caber toss at lunchtime in the field out back of Sun's first Colorado office, the beloved and infamous Rocky Mountain Technology Center (RMTC), he pointed me to The Cathedral and the Bazzar. So I read that book, too. It helped me understand why open source was good for software products, software users, and software companies, but I just couldn't understand why engineers would want to work for free. Most of them worked long hours already.
After attending Stephen Lau's presentation on the OpenSolaris track on Tuesday, I think I finally understand.
doh!
Interestingly enough, I do it all the time. With motorcycles. For years, now, when I get free time, I jump on my favorite motorcycle communities (Harley Tech Talk, Deuce Owner's Group, and sometimes a few others) just for fun. I ask questions and answer other people's questions. Together we figure out how to solve problems that the Motor Company can't or doesn't want to. These communities are terrific resources. Why do I do it? Because I love to work on bikes and I love to talk about working on bikes. And I get to "hang out" with people who like the same thing.
Sometimes the hardest things to see are the ones that are right in front of your nose.
I love working at Sun and have been doing it since 89, but it still surprised me that there would be thousands of people who love to work on Solaris for the fun of it.
Stallman discovered, on principle, something that has turned into a new economic force: the community. I'm not familiar enough with Stallman's writings or economic theory to know whether this notion has been described as an economic force before, but it sure seems like it to me. Late to the party as I am, I'm kinda pumped about all this.
What does it mean for sysadmins? Stephen talked touched on that during his presentation. The technologies being developed in several OpenSolaris projects will need to be deployed by sysadmins. By joining those projects, you can tell the OpenSolaris developers what would make it easier for you to deploy and perhaps manage their technologies. There is even a sysadmin-focused OpenSolaris project where you can deal with deployment questions in a holistic way.
BigAdmin will soon post a page full of Open Source resources for sysadmins. We'll invite you to add yours to the BigAdmin wiki. Stay tuned.
doh! is the new Eureka.
It's taken me a while to grok the Open Source movement. Not because I haven't been exposed to it. Back in the late 80's or early 90's I read one of Richard Stallman's books about the Free Softaware Foundation, and promptly stuffed it next to "The Communist Manifesto" on my bookshelf. A clear case of Paley's condemnation prior to investigation, that phrase popularized by the friendly folks from A.A.
Shoot, I even wrote docs for a LISP IDE and an AI language and IDE based on the Symbolics systems. You'd think I would know better.
When I asked Jerry Jackson, an erstwhile Sun engineer I met while he was practicing the caber toss at lunchtime in the field out back of Sun's first Colorado office, the beloved and infamous Rocky Mountain Technology Center (RMTC), he pointed me to The Cathedral and the Bazzar. So I read that book, too. It helped me understand why open source was good for software products, software users, and software companies, but I just couldn't understand why engineers would want to work for free. Most of them worked long hours already.
After attending Stephen Lau's presentation on the OpenSolaris track on Tuesday, I think I finally understand.
doh!
Interestingly enough, I do it all the time. With motorcycles. For years, now, when I get free time, I jump on my favorite motorcycle communities (Harley Tech Talk, Deuce Owner's Group, and sometimes a few others) just for fun. I ask questions and answer other people's questions. Together we figure out how to solve problems that the Motor Company can't or doesn't want to. These communities are terrific resources. Why do I do it? Because I love to work on bikes and I love to talk about working on bikes. And I get to "hang out" with people who like the same thing.
Sometimes the hardest things to see are the ones that are right in front of your nose.
I love working at Sun and have been doing it since 89, but it still surprised me that there would be thousands of people who love to work on Solaris for the fun of it.
Stallman discovered, on principle, something that has turned into a new economic force: the community. I'm not familiar enough with Stallman's writings or economic theory to know whether this notion has been described as an economic force before, but it sure seems like it to me. Late to the party as I am, I'm kinda pumped about all this.
What does it mean for sysadmins? Stephen talked touched on that during his presentation. The technologies being developed in several OpenSolaris projects will need to be deployed by sysadmins. By joining those projects, you can tell the OpenSolaris developers what would make it easier for you to deploy and perhaps manage their technologies. There is even a sysadmin-focused OpenSolaris project where you can deal with deployment questions in a holistic way.
BigAdmin will soon post a page full of Open Source resources for sysadmins. We'll invite you to add yours to the BigAdmin wiki. Stay tuned.
