Slashdot Mirror
Why Open APIs Fall Far Short of Open Source
itwbennett writes "451 Group analyst Jay Lyman opined in a LinuxInsider column that because of open APIs, 'non-open source software is often open enough.' Not so, says ITworld blogger Brian Proffitt. Sure, open APIs are an easy way for a small developer to 'plug into a big software ecosystem,' but it's a trap. 'If open APIs are the only connector to a software project, the destiny of that code lies solely in the hands of the owners,' says Proffitt. 'Which means that anyone connecting into the application will have to deal with the changes imposed from the top down.'"
Like for example, the Windows API?
Seems like "Open API" is another way to say "proprietary software."
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Their top revenue generator is their adds and second indirectly their search engine. Neither of which I'd ever expect for them to open.
100% agreed. Call it a "loss leader' or the price of doing business, but the OS certainly is not their revenue generator. Amazing how many smart people don't understand how companies make their money.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
For crying out loud, the GIMP authors still refuse users the basic 16-bit per channel support !!
No they don't.
http://www.gimp.org/docs/userfaq.html#16bit
When can we see 16-bit per channel support (or better)?
For some industries, especially photography, 24-bit colour depths (8 bits per channel) are a real barrier to entry. Once again, it's GEGL to the rescue. Work on integrating GEGL into GIMP began after 2.4 was released, and will span across several stable releases. This work will be completed in GIMP 3.0, which will have full support for high bit depths.
There's also the UFRaw plugin for 16 bit image processing. http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."