squeak program delivery, etc

Marcus Denker marcus at ira.uka.de
Fri Dec 4 23:01:39 UTC 1998


On Thu, Dec 03, 1998 at 12:42:38PM -0600, Dwight Hughes wrote:
> A comparison I like to use is that open source is to closed source as
> science was to alchemy. Science is built by sharing knowledge and
> discoveries openly so the work of anyone can be built on by everyone
> else -- alchemists hoarded their knowledge and discoveries, each to
> himself - his knowledge dying with him, so each generation started anew,
> and no one got very far. When products or their companies die they take
> many person-years of knowledge and discoveries down the drain with them,
> which gets laborously reinvented to a greater or lesser degree of skill
> again and again and again.
> 

There's a good article by Tim O'Reilly in Esther Dyson's "Release 1.0":

|Imagine for a moment, if Newton had withheld his laws of motion, and
|instead gone into business as a defense contractor to artillerists
|following the 30 Years War. "No, I won't tell you how I know about 
|parabolic trajectories, but I'll calibrate your guns for a fee." The 
|very idea, of course, sounds absurd. Not only did science not evolve 
|this way, but it could not have evolved this way. Such secrecy would 
|have kept science from developing and evolving at all. 

The Open-Source Revolution: http://www.edventure.com/release1/1198.html

-- 
Marcus Denker marcus at ira.uka.de fon at home:(0721)614235 @work:(0721)608-2749  
 





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