Peace, Love and Penguins? Well...
Jul 03, 2007, 20:15 (3 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Carla Schroder)
"Somehow the Free and Open Source software world acquired this
silly image of happy hippies living in perfect harmony,
altruistically cranking out awesome code for the betterment of
humankind. As if! You will surely be disappointed if that's what
you expect to find. What you will find is it's founded on healthy
values. It is structured to reward both cooperation and
independence, so there's no need for threats of dire punishments to
keep people in line, and few limitations on creativity or
invention.
"It is also based on openness and transparency, which typically
induce attacks of culture shock in people raised up in protected
corporate cloisters, surrounded by comforting layers of
non-disclosure agreements and contractual secrecy. There's little
going on in FOSS that doesn't go on behind closed corporate doors
every day. The difference is it's all out in the open, with
boisterous peanut galleries cheering on the participants, and even
wading in to take sides and express opinions with the confidence of
people who think their opinions actually matter..."
Complete Story
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