competition is good?

competition is good?

Posted Mar 29, 2007 19:24 UTC (Thu) by Duncan (guest, #6647)
In reply to: competition is good? by dlang
Parent article: Linux and flash

> you say we should have one desktop with
> config options for every possible user
>
> but you have honest disagreement between
> different people about how much configurability
> there should be (and not just the gnome folks)

As a KDE user that appreciates the level of configurability it offers,
this is what I like about GNOME. There's an honest disagreement on UI
goals and styles, and GNOME is somewhere for those who disagree to go, so
they don't bother the KDE folks and try to limit the options some of us
like to use! I /hate/ trying to use GNOME, because it makes me feel
limited and locked down. However, I'm /very/ glad it's there, because I'd
a whole lot rather those in favor of such a thing have their own sandbox
to play in than try to impose their limitations on mine.

Additionally, the point made that FLOSS isn't a zero-sum game definitely
applies. Many coders are volunteers. You can't force volunteers to work
together to create the "ideal" (how ever you want to define it) project,
because it just doesn't work that way. If they like where it's headed,
they'll naturally put more hours into getting it there. If they don't,
they'll go elsewhere if possible, or simply find something else to do if
not. Thus, KDE/GNOME/XFCE/whatever isn't wasted effort, but simply those
with the talent finding the project that best matches their ideal, that
best stimulates them to contribute more towards its progress, and forcing
a one size fits all wouldn't get everyone working on the same thing to
make it advance faster, it would cause many to stop working entirely (or
again start branch projects if the could, which is in practice what
happens, because there's simply no way to force it in FLOSS).

The same of course applies to all the other "wars", vi/emacs, etc.

The first point doesn't so much apply in the flash case, due to the spec
already being laid out such that our implementations either work or don't.
However, the second point continues to apply. Trying to force just a
single project won't have the desired effect of speeding things up,
because being volunteers, some now contributing to the other project will
simply find other things to do with that time instead. In fact, due to
the cross-proliferation of ideas and friendly competition between the
projects, forcing a single project would likely slow things down
dramatically, because that would be lost.

Meanwhile, I have gnash merged here, but haven't found it all that
practical. Generally, I see the thing load, but it won't play anything.
I guess I'll have to try swfdec and see if I have any better luck. To my
knowledge, given I'm running amd64 in 64-bit, even if I was able to
legally run slaveryware (in general, I legally can't, since EULAs are
potentially binding here and I can't agree to the EULA, as they restrict
freedoms I'm no longer willing to sign away), even then there'd be serious
hoops to jump thru in ordered to get the proprietary flash player working,
since AFAIK there's no native 64-bit version.

Duncan

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