[ Thanks to James Maguire for this
link. ]
“One of the best things about free and open source software
(FOSS) is that its developers often do attempt to write software
that is the ultimate in its category.“They remind me of the writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth
century who tried to write the definitive reference work on their
subject, whether it was the decline and fall of the Roman empire or
how diversity leads to the creation of new species. They’ve caught
the habit of perfection, and I have to admire them.Their behavior is something that you can’t expect to see in
proprietary software. When you are worried about getting an app to
market, perfection means delay. Instead, proprietary software
usually settles for good enough, even when trying to match a rival
product’s features or to take the lead in the features race.”