Who cares about this, for crying out loud? Such 'commentators' should matter little to the OS movement. I am sick and tired (and sick and tired) of hearing the same old arguments from the same old, tired hacks, who have to make a living somehow.
The strength of the open source movement is it's variety and this very lack leadership that everybody so bemoans. The current set-up leads to an anarchic, chaotic, but often happy and innovative playground the open source used to sit quite happily, before we discovered the what the initials VC stood for.
The reason OS works is because it moves fast and sometimes in unexpected directions. Innovations are always going to come from this kind of background, and thank goodness for that.
The OS movement is a testing ground, and ultimately a killing ground for ideas that don't work. Where movement OS leads, commercial concerns follow. Let's keep that way. Not stultify it with this Western Obsession with top-down hierarchies. Celebrate diversity, not uniformity.
Iain Banks first appeared in the UK in, I think about the 1980's with Wasp Factory.
I recommend everybody read this. A twisted, black, Scottish, Gothic Horror novel, with a rather interesting ending. It caused an outcry in this country when realeased, all the arty-farty critics loathed and detested it. However in a recent millenium poll done for one of the UK top book shops it was in the top 5 best books of the 20th C (along with Lord of the Rings, Gormenghast, etc).
His main-stream novels written under the name Iain Banks are
Wasp Factory
Walking on Glass
The Bridge
Canal Dreams
Espedair Street
A Song of Stone
Complicity
Whit
The Business
His Science Fiction which is absolutely superb, and I am gob-smacked that he hasn't won a Nebula or Hugo yet (maybe you guys, just haven't heard of him yet) are written under the name Iain M Banks
The Player of Games
Consider Phlebas (absolutely f***ing brilliant)
Use of Weapons
State of the Art
Feersum Injun
Inversions
Toward Windward (totally cool)
Against a Dark Background
And lastly the best 'hard' science fiction book I have read in years:
Excession
This guy is as good, and probably better than Vernor Vinge.
Slashdot Mirror
Who cares about this, for crying out loud? Such 'commentators' should matter little to the OS movement. I am sick and tired (and sick and tired) of hearing the same old arguments from the same old, tired hacks, who have to make a living somehow. The strength of the open source movement is it's variety and this very lack leadership that everybody so bemoans. The current set-up leads to an anarchic, chaotic, but often happy and innovative playground the open source used to sit quite happily, before we discovered the what the initials VC stood for. The reason OS works is because it moves fast and sometimes in unexpected directions. Innovations are always going to come from this kind of background, and thank goodness for that. The OS movement is a testing ground, and ultimately a killing ground for ideas that don't work. Where movement OS leads, commercial concerns follow. Let's keep that way. Not stultify it with this Western Obsession with top-down hierarchies. Celebrate diversity, not uniformity.
Iain Banks first appeared in the UK in, I think about the 1980's with Wasp Factory. I recommend everybody read this. A twisted, black, Scottish, Gothic Horror novel, with a rather interesting ending. It caused an outcry in this country when realeased, all the arty-farty critics loathed and detested it. However in a recent millenium poll done for one of the UK top book shops it was in the top 5 best books of the 20th C (along with Lord of the Rings, Gormenghast, etc). His main-stream novels written under the name Iain Banks are Wasp Factory Walking on Glass The Bridge Canal Dreams Espedair Street A Song of Stone Complicity Whit The Business His Science Fiction which is absolutely superb, and I am gob-smacked that he hasn't won a Nebula or Hugo yet (maybe you guys, just haven't heard of him yet) are written under the name Iain M Banks The Player of Games Consider Phlebas (absolutely f***ing brilliant) Use of Weapons State of the Art Feersum Injun Inversions Toward Windward (totally cool) Against a Dark Background And lastly the best 'hard' science fiction book I have read in years: Excession This guy is as good, and probably better than Vernor Vinge.