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Flame Wars, Forks and Freedom
Eugenia Loli-Queru writes "In the news media, it is generally shown that flame wars and forks are detrimental to the growth of FOSS (Free/Open Source Software) But if we see the history of FOSS, both flame wars and forks have played a crucial role in determining both growth and direction of important projects. There are also arguments that this leads to fragmentation and marginalization. There is some truth in these arguments but there are a lot of benefits which are often overlooked. This article looks at some of the benefits of forking and flame wars through history."
...the gestapo, crazy, freak of a reporter who has never learned a lick of English grammar, Eugenia, posted a /. report to generate traffic to a very lame article on her own web site? Her site heavily moderates and or removes any comments regarding the grammar or correctness of articles posted. The number of uninformed opinion pieces written by high school kids increases each week along with the number of times Eugenia feels she needs to attach an editor's note to article regarding her opinion. Really, all her site does is point to other better known sites like /., ZDnet, Wired, etc. My head hurts when I read her writing. Stereo system instructions are more comprehensible.
AC
Some would argue that Tanenbaum is still right. In fact, the monolithic design of Linux has caused issues in the past. Microkernel-based systems like OS X and NT have proven their versatility and flexibility. There's a reason I'm not using Linux anymore and have since switched to FreeBSD and OS X.
Posting anonymously because I run the risk of having my karma destroyed for suggesting Tanenbaum was correct.