Project Competition -> was -> Re: Infozone

[burtonator <bu...@relativity.yi.org>]

Eric van der Vlist wrote:
> 
> burtonator wrote:
> >
> > The reason I think this applies to the Java/Server-side world is that if
> > you have a decent project, you should bring it under the ASF.  In the
> > future most projects will be like this.  There are certain exceptions of
> > course.  I would like to see Lucene and EJBoss under the ASF.
> 
> If you allow the view of an outside observer, I'd like to disagree here
> ;=) ...
> 
> I think monopolies are as bad for open source as they are for
> "traditional" economies.
<snip>

> At the end of the day, I don't think it will be beneficial to the open
> source community if too many projects can "win" without having to be the
> best technically...

You are making a common logic mistake that I have been seeing. :)  Just
because there is only one project within a certain technical domain, say
HTTP servers, doesn't mean there isn't fierce competition internally.

The difference is that competition happens internal to the project
instead of two projects head on head.  A good example of this is
Catalina vs Tomcat.  Catalina is Tomcat but with a totally different
implementation.  It is in the same CVS and some of its concepts are
logical and compelling but clearly competitive and revolutionary.

The same thing can be said within Jetspeed.  Raphael came on board and
challenged a lot of my Portlet concepts.  This was a good thing.  His
input is now in CVS and has replaced a large section of my old code.

The problem with X-project competition is that you end up spinning your
wheels and all communication is out of synch.  This is why a lot of the
KDE and GNOME projects duplicate functionality, each with their own
flaws in implementation.  There are a finite number of developers...
let's not split up the group :)

Kvin

-- 
Kevin A Burton (e-mail: burton@apache.org, UIN: 73488596, ZKey:
burtonator)
http://relativity.yi.org
Message to SUN:  "Please Open Source Java!"
To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence;
supreme 
excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
    - Sun Tzu, 300 B.C.