Myths Open Source Developers Tell Ourselves

“One persistent misfeature of open source development is
thoughtless mimicry, copying the behaviors of other projects
without considering if they work or if there are better options
under the current circumstances. At best, these practices are
conventional wisdom, things that everybody believes even if nobody
really remembers why. At worst, they’re lies we tell ourselves.

“Perhaps ‘lies’ is too strong a word. ‘Myths’ is better; these
ideas may not be true, but we don’t intend to deceive ourselves. We
may not even be dogmatic about them, either. Ask any experienced
open source developer if his users really want to track the latest
CVS sources. Chances are, he doesn’t really believe that…”

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