On Mon, Apr 08, 2013 at 07:45:16AM +1000, Chris Angelico wrote:
> It seems that good software works really well with other good
> software. Pike and PostgreSQL and Linux work beautifully together; VB
> .NET and PostgreSQL and Windows, not so much. I wonder if that's
> because smart developers use awesome tools, and so build the linkages
> between them first, and only support the less-awesome tools later on
> as someone else asks for it...
The best explanation I've heard is that open source solves the problem
of bad interfaces. By this I mean that if you're having a performence
problem or struggling with an API, you can simply download the source
of the component and look for where the problem is. Then you can
either tweak your program with perfect understanding that it will work
*or* fix the library so the problem doesn't happen. Both lead to more
robust software.
It happens regularly that some performence problem on a particular OS
(other than windows) ends with someone digging up the code in the
kernel source that's causing the problem.
With Windows you're coding to a black box, which means you end up with
hacks and workarounds at all levels of the stack leading to associated
performence problems and instability.
Someone wrote a nice blog about it once and coined a term, but I've
forgetten what.
Have a nice day,
--
Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog@svana.org> http://svana.org/kleptog/
> He who writes carelessly confesses thereby at the very outset that he does
> not attach much importance to his own thoughts.
-- Arthur Schopenhauer