Interview: OSI's new president

Posted Feb 2, 2005 20:47 UTC (Wed) by twiens (subscriber, #12274)
Parent article: Interview: OSI's new president

As a GRASS user, I wasn't aware of this fellow I read his comments on the GRASS user list about what was all wrong about GRASS.... It certainly didn't leave me with the impression of someone who is patient or thoughtful. I don't know him, so I don't want to prejudge, but if I got this impression from someone in an interview, he wouldn't get the job, even if he was the only one who applied and I was desperate to hire someone.

Interview: OSI's new president

Posted Feb 7, 2005 16:28 UTC (Mon) by RussNelson (guest, #27730) [Link] (1 responses)

I read his comments on the GRASS user list about what was all wrong about GRASS.... It certainly didn't leave me with the impression of someone who is patient or thoughtful.

Part of the problem with the whole GRASS thing is that it suffers from what I call the Software Stockholm Syndrome. Everyone who currently uses GRASS has suffered to gain the knowledge of how to use it. They are held captive by their hard-won expertise with it. Anybody who comes along suggesting changes is going to be perceived as a threat. Users feel it because they already know how to use the software. Developers feel it because a suggestion to change is an implicit criticism. So you end up with this insular community which resists entry from outsiders. You can guess that I don't think it's a good thing, but I know of no easy solution.

Go Russ

Posted Feb 11, 2005 5:56 UTC (Fri) by dmag (guest, #17775) [Link]

Amen.

The dominant player in any niche tends to be complex (Sendmail, Apache, Bind, Samba, Perl, etc.). In some instances (Apache, Samba), the complexity is shallow: Most simple problems can be solved in minutes. In other instances (Sendmail, GRASS), the complexity is deep: Some simple problems require days of research.

I think it's like UNIX. There are very few word processors (even text mode ones like Word Perfect) for UNIX because UNIX attracts the kind of people who don't use word processors. Beyond a certian complexity barrier, the situation just gets hopeless, I think.