Return to BSD News archive
Xref: sserve comp.os.linux:35038 comp.os.386bsd.questions:1762 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!agate!doc.ic.ac.uk!uknet!pipex!demon!centrix.demon.co.uk!damian Newsgroups: comp.os.linux,comp.os.386bsd.questions From: damian@centrix.demon.co.uk (damian) Subject: Re: Summary of Linux vs. 386BSD vs. Commercial Unixes References: <1993Apr17.231000.103368@zeus.calpoly.edu> <9304181046.aa28257@gate.demon.co.uk> <matthew.735171544@femto.engr.mun.ca> Organization: Centrix Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1993 22:34:55 +0000 Message-ID: <9304200034.ag09432@gate.demon.co.uk> Sender: usenet@demon.co.uk Lines: 38 In article <matthew.735171544@femto.engr.mun.ca> matthew@nano.engr.mun.ca (Matthew Newhook) writes: >damian@centrix.demon.co.uk (damian) writes: >>People who write public software only do it for one thing: to see their >>name in lights. That might seem frivolous, but I believe it's true. So >>if that is their only motivation, then don't allow the sharks to take >>that away from them. After all, no motivation, no software. > >What a pile of shit. Quite often people write software, look at it, >say jee, this is useful! I bet some other people will like to use this. >let's let them see it, and use it if they want to. They didn't sit down >and say, mm... I wonder what I can write to have my name in lights... >After all, do you know the name of the person who wrote `less'? Ok, I got the phrasing wrong. What I mean to say is yes people write a bit of software, see that with a bit of tidying up that would be useful to other people. Now why do they bother to do the tidying up, pack it into a tar file, stuff some docs together and then give time to other people helping them to use it? Ok I didn't mean people sit down and think "what can make me famous" etc etc. What I mean to say is software writers are proud of their little creation, they think is a neat bit of coding, solves a problem in a neat and generic way etc etc. This is in much the same way that a painter paints a painting, or an author writes a book (very rarely is the prime motivation money). Why is the list of credit's at the end of a film so long? If artists didn't care, there would be no credits. Ok no, I can't remember who wrote 'less', but I know what 'less' is because it is so widely used and the author is probably proud that *his* bit of software is so widely used. At least everybody acknowledges that he wrote it, rather than DEC saying "it is part of *our* s/w pack", implying that is has been written by them. Do you get my point? Damian -- +----------------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | Damian Ivereigh | If you can't suss out what this is replying to | | damian@centrix.demon.co.uk | get a threaded news reader, like trn. :-) | | Twickenham, U.K. | This is the best way to cut wasted traffic | +----------------------------+------------------------------------------------+