ratkom.net: potraga za nepoznatim

Iako ovakve stvari uglavnom pišem kao Dodatke postovima, mislim da je ovaj članak na Linux Magazine siteu pod nazivom “Microsoft Patches Linux: Linus responds” (od 22.07.) prilično dobar komentar na činjenicu da je Microsoft poslao svoj kod na uključivanje u Linux Kernel. Sa par komentara se javio i Linus Torvalds (svi znamo tko je) i mislim da je ovo jedna pametna, zdravorazumska priča o tome tko što želi.

Zanimljivo je kako se Linus ograđuje od pojedinaca koji manijakalno odbacuju sve oko sebe živući samo za ono što nema dodira s ičim komercijalnim – srednja struja postaje sve dominantnija, kao što jača i u Microsoftu, s svim aktivnostima vezanim uz otvoreni kod ali i opće razumijevanje toga što OSS jest.

Kratki, preneseni komentar Linusa:

I’m a big believer in "technology over politics". I don’t care who it comes from, as long as there are solid reasons for the code, and as long as we don’t have to worry about licensing etc issues. I may make jokes about Microsoft at times, but at the same time, I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease. I believe in open development, and that very much involves not just making the source open, but also not shutting other people and companies out. There are ‘extremists’ in the free software world, but that’s one major reason why I don’t call what I do ‘free software’ any more. I don’t want to be associated with the people for whom it’s about exclusion and hatred.

Ali ono što me zbilja ugodno iznenadilo jest da Linus i moja malenkost zapravo isto mislimo odnosno da nam je razmišljanje o tome zašto je Microsoft baš to napravio prilično zajedničko (za to je potrebno pročitati moj prethodni post na tu temu). Evo izvatka od strane Linusa:

“I agree that it’s driven by selfish reasons, but that’s how all open source code gets written! We all “scratch our own itches”. It’s why I started Linux, it’s why I started git, and it’s why I am still involved. It’s the reason for everybody to end up in open source, to some degree.

So complaining about the fact that Microsoft picked a selfish area to work on is just silly. Of course they picked an area that helps them. That’s the point of open source – the ability to make the code better for your particular needs, whoever the ‘your’ in question happens to be.

Does anybody complain when hardware companies write drivers for the hardware they produce? No. That would be crazy. Does anybody complain when IBM funds all the POWER development, and works on enterprise features because they sell into the enterprise? No. That would be insane.

So the people who complain about Microsoft writing drivers for their own virtualization model should take a long look in the mirror and ask themselves why they are being so hypocritical.”

Nuf said. Odlično.