Hackers of the Bazaar, UNITE!
I honestly don’t even know how this is a question. Of course I respect everyone’s opinions, but to me, this is so obviously proof that the bazaar works. Linux was created not with the purpose of making money, but with the purpose of fixing some issues with Minix and the x terminal.
Linus set out to make a terminal emulator program, not an operating system. I think there has to be more than just some fortunate circumstances to the success of Linux. The fact that it started as a small, simple project by one person and grew to such a big success with the help of hundreds of people who weren’t making any money is proof that it was much more than just circumstances.
I’m sure you have all tried to get a group of people to do something. It’s not easy without some sort of incentive. People don’t just do things for free… unless they have some stake in it. The contributors to Linux only had personal stakes in the project, namely their own use of the system.
If I was told in a class that I had to install Linux and use it for a week I think I would just do something simple. Probably install Ubuntu with all the frills it comes with and just be happy that it all worked. But, that was never a thing that happened. I found Linux through LUG and I have put a ton of time and effort into making my machine perfect for me. I have a personal stake in making everything work correctly and efficiently, but I’m not making any money off of this. So why do I spend so much time on it? Because it interests me; because I have a passion for it. That’s why the bazaar was so successful with Linux: people were passionate about this terminal emulator program that Linus created in his bedroom. People took time to work on it because they were interested in it.
If you don’t have any external incentives to do something, it’s not going to get done unless you have some internal, personal incentives to want to get it done.
I think as long as people are interested in something and dedicate their time to it, anything is possible. Who knows, maybe Jukestapose will be the next big open source success story?
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Reading09: Can I Go the Distance?
“I was an ugly child”
Yeah, same Linus.
No, but seriously I see a lot of similarities between myself and Linus (minus the bathrobe -- the coke and doughnut thing was pretty much on point too). Linus mentions that “only a certain kind of person is able to sit and stare at a screen and just think things through.” I am DEFINITELY one of those people: sitting in front of my computer and just thinking about problems is one of my favorite pass times.
The issue comes when you don’t have something interesting to work on, which tends to happen to me… a lot. The one thing that always keeps me coming back is my arch + i3 setup. I tend to work on a script or color scheme or installations and such for a day or two (almost exclusively) and then go on a bit of a hiatus for a month, maybe two. I always come back to it though, because it interest me. Usually, when I go out of my way to write a script, it’s because something has been bothering me or I’ve had to redo something several times and I just want to automate it (going back to ESR’s principles: good software comes from a need to scratch a personal itch).
I personally think Torvalds’ story is extremely inspiring. The more I read all his technical talk about his journey to creating Linux, the more I wanted to dive into the kernel myself and write some of those system calls. I know I could never have the patience to actually complete an entire operating system, but I think writing system calls (or at least going super in depth into the code) would be super interesting and I would learn a lot. Operating Systems have been a passion (or I guess maybe just a strong interest) of mine for a little while now and reading stories of people who have the same interest is always fun for me. Linus was just a regular person who wanted to know how his computer worked and so wrote an operating system that is now used by thousands of people all around the world. To think, I could do something like that if I wanted to. But then again, there’s no way I could do all that.
Torvalds’ story makes me want to do something. I’ve always been the kind of person who wants to do something that will change the world in some way. Linus did that. He has affected so many people with a little terminal emulator program he started working on in his bedroom wearing a bathrobe. He was average, until he wasn’t. I want to do something that makes me not average anymore. I wish I could do something that would get me out of this rut of averageness that I’ve been in my whole life, you know?
I want to be someone, like Linus.
Yeah, same Linus.
No, but seriously I see a lot of similarities between myself and Linus (minus the bathrobe -- the coke and doughnut thing was pretty much on point too). Linus mentions that “only a certain kind of person is able to sit and stare at a screen and just think things through.” I am DEFINITELY one of those people: sitting in front of my computer and just thinking about problems is one of my favorite pass times.
The issue comes when you don’t have something interesting to work on, which tends to happen to me… a lot. The one thing that always keeps me coming back is my arch + i3 setup. I tend to work on a script or color scheme or installations and such for a day or two (almost exclusively) and then go on a bit of a hiatus for a month, maybe two. I always come back to it though, because it interest me. Usually, when I go out of my way to write a script, it’s because something has been bothering me or I’ve had to redo something several times and I just want to automate it (going back to ESR’s principles: good software comes from a need to scratch a personal itch).
I personally think Torvalds’ story is extremely inspiring. The more I read all his technical talk about his journey to creating Linux, the more I wanted to dive into the kernel myself and write some of those system calls. I know I could never have the patience to actually complete an entire operating system, but I think writing system calls (or at least going super in depth into the code) would be super interesting and I would learn a lot. Operating Systems have been a passion (or I guess maybe just a strong interest) of mine for a little while now and reading stories of people who have the same interest is always fun for me. Linus was just a regular person who wanted to know how his computer worked and so wrote an operating system that is now used by thousands of people all around the world. To think, I could do something like that if I wanted to. But then again, there’s no way I could do all that.
Torvalds’ story makes me want to do something. I’ve always been the kind of person who wants to do something that will change the world in some way. Linus did that. He has affected so many people with a little terminal emulator program he started working on in his bedroom wearing a bathrobe. He was average, until he wasn’t. I want to do something that makes me not average anymore. I wish I could do something that would get me out of this rut of averageness that I’ve been in my whole life, you know?
I want to be someone, like Linus.
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