In-Reply-to: <200812220435.mBM4Zmd07588@momjian.us>
On: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:35:48 -0500 (EST), Bruce Momjian
<bruce@momjian.us> wrote:
> I am sure there are smart people at all the database companies. I do
> believe that open source development harnesses the abilities of its
> intelligent people better than commercial companies.
I doubt that this is the case. In fact, I would venture that the chief
advantage of open source / free software projects over their commercial
brethren is that there is no "harness" at all.
The advantage of OS/FS is that theirs is truly a Darwinian struggle. OS
Projects that prove less fit for their environment pass away fairly
quickly for want of any real support. This is especially evident when a
significantly superior approach evolves outside the project or the social
behaviour of the team leads to self destructive actions within.
Commercial projects are not as directly susceptible to this process as
they do not exist for their own sake, but rather as an artifact of another
process, that of a commercial enterprise. Those projects survival is more
a consequence of, and dependent upon, the survival of the their supporting
social structure, the enterprise itself.
I think that to describe either OS or commercial software as better or
worse is misleading. The most that can be said is that each approach
serves a different purpose and exists in a different environment.
--
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