Fwd:Daniel Robbins hired by M$

[Christopher Browne]

On 6/14/05, marius <anarcap-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 6/14/05, Robert Brockway <rbrockway-wgAaPJgzrDxH4x6Dk/4f9A at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > On Tue, 14 Jun 2005, bob wrote:
> >
> > > This new "hire and silence" strategy on the part of Microsoft actually
> > > stands a good chance of slowing the open source movement.  In reality it
> >
> > I don't think so.  OSS is developed by tens of thousands of dedicated
> > developers and the number is growing rapidly.  MS is only picking up a few
> > of the more famous people (and even then only a small minority).  I don't
> > see their hiring efforts having any effect on the growth of OSS.
> 
> Judging by the number of orphans on SourceForge, losing one or two key
> developers is enough to slow or shut down an OSS project.

I wouldn't judge SF that way...

The situation with SF is that there are enormous numbers of projects
there that are nothing more than the wishful thinking of the one or
two "would-be project leaders."

There are plenty of projects that never were vital to anyone.

> It's true that most large projects have dozens of developers with
> potential replacements eagerly waiting in the wings, however most OSS
> projects are run by a handful of people.

It is likely that most projects *ought* to be able to be run by a
handful of people.

Those that have huge 'body counts' are more likely to fall prey to the
"Mythical Man Month" problem observed by Fred Brooks.  The more people
you have, the greater the communications costs, and the less work gets
done.

> > I disagree.  Everytime someone becomes less active in OSS (and it happens)
> > they are replaced.  The OSS movement can survive the loss of any of its
> > key members, or a many of them.
> 
> Has anyone stepped up to maintain any of JWZ's projects since he very
> publicly ditched Linux for OS X and announced "not to hold your breath
> for new releases" of the software he wrote/maintained?

What has he been responsible for that is of wide interest beyond XScreensaver?

- XScreensaver had a release a couple months ago, which presumably
means there are now enough modules that I should expect to see a
repeat more than once every year or two.

- He hasn't been maintaining BBDB since 1995...

- xkeycaps hasn't been maintained since 1999...

He had an web-based MP3 player; there are plenty of others to choose from.

If any of it mattered (XScreensaver doubtless does), then people would
indeed step up as they care about it.
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