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ESR Responds to Sun's Claims of Being a Better Bazaar

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the cathedral-calls-basilica-cold dept.

UnixSphere writes "Sun has been quoted to have said, 'Sun's Java is developed more in the mode of the bazaar than Linux is,' which has prompted OSI President Eric Raymond to correct Sun's view of what open source really is."

2 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Free Forking? by cervo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Didn't Microsoft try to make their own Java implementation(J++) and didn't sun go after them for it because it didn't stick to the java standards? Is that open source?

    If you don't like the linux kernel you can take the code, make your own kernel, and even break whatever standards you want....Linus isn't going to drag you to court for breaking the POSIX standard or something.

    Can the same be said or Java? In fact parts of it are still under a propietary license as the article states...so people who live in glass houses.....

  2. This exactly matches democracy vs free markets by Julian+Morrison · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The essence of the bazaar is not voting--a concept I never mentioned in The Cathedral and the Bazaar and don't endorse--but the right to fork.
    Democracy: you get a vote, there's a central point of control which, at the culmination of all the votes, ends up bossing people around, and nobody has a legal alternative. Result: if the democracy screws you over for populist causes, or the central point of control gets corrupted, tough luck. Result also: if you're in a numerical minority, your desires will be met coincidentally if at all.

    Free markets: nobody has a right to vote how you may or may not act with your own stuff - but if they don't like it, they can get their own stuff and do as they please instead, or go to someone else they prefer. Result: egregious misbehaviour causes a "fork" where customers move away. Also result: not only is the majority happy, but also all profitable minority niches of the market are served.

    Not surprising ESR thinks this way considering he's a libertarian and possibly an anarchist :-)