Open Source: A Common Misconception
I just realized that this post was still a draft, thus not really ‘posted’. I am reposting it from my personal blog. I wrote it in July 2005 and am not going to change a single word.
I lifted this from Markus’ website, even though it’s originally attributed to Caterina Fake, founder of Flickr:
You don’t do good software design by committee. You do it best by having a dictator. From the user’s point of view, you must have a coherent design philosophy, and I don’t see how that could come about from open source software. The person who’s done it best is Steve Jobs, and he’s well-known for being a tyrant.
– Don Norman
Well now that’s an interesting misconception: open source software = democracy. Of course we have to remember that this is just a quote; something in essence always taken out of context.
I have made this mistake though. My first open source software was democratically developed. Well, more accurately, my very impressively sized team spent several months discussing it but I ended up being the only one coding something while all my virtual chefs would tell me where to add ingredients.
I have never made that mistake again. Open source software, to be successful, needs a strong leader, just as closed source software does. I believe that to lead a project to success, you need personality. Not necessarily a good personality, just something that will make people feel that at least the project is going somewhere.
A famous example of open source software that is *not* democracy-based is Linux. Linus Torvalds will not let you add your code to the existing kernel code base without thorough review and he will sometimes decide to reject your code based on ‘political’ reasons. It makes for interesting debates and I can think of at least a few people who went from idolizing the idea they had of Linus to squarely resenting any interaction with him. But it’s only fair: open or closed source, software development needs direction and you have to pick your own priorities: who do you wish to satisfy first? Your users or your developers?
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Comments
Well, you make a good point. I do not consider myself a Job whore, but I have to give credit where it is due: even if you do not consider Apple to be at the top of their game -and I believe that they are closer to being, today, than they ever were, as you point out with Atari and Commodore -that Tramiel! – I believe that his are remarkable achievements.
Think of it this way: where would Apple be today, if it wasn’t for Jobs? I personally think that they would have gone to that mythical farm where my dog relocated when I was 12.
Now, being someone with coherent design views doesn’t mean that you have to be an a-hole, which reportedly Jobs is -don’t know myself, never met the guy, we do not shop for clothes at the same place- but you still have to hold the helm tightly. That’s what Torvalds does and it seems to be working rather well for Linux and that’s an open-source project, so I guess I should stick with him and not mention Jobs myself. However, the problem with Jobs is that I always have to wonder how much of the criticism he is getting is due to his gritting -to some- personality rather than his own merits.
September 8, 2007 @ 3:32 am
I’ve never understood the whole dictatorship = good philosophy using Steve Jobs as the prime example. He has the ~image~ of success without as much of the reality as he’s given credit for. Apple has never been at the top of its field, although they’ve had their share of enthusiastic (the nice way to put it) fans who think they have been. But they’ve always played second banana to others like Atari, Commodore and of course in more recent decades Microsoft.
Oh sure, he’s had his ups and downs and some success at the moment, but Apple isn’t exactly Google. And Mr. Jobs dictatorship has been a rocky one for Apple overall.
So I think the comparison is of course flawed when applied to an assumption to Open Source, because I think they’re viewing their dreamdate with rose coloured glasses in the first place.