From: sweh@spuddy.uucp (Stephen Harris) Subject: Re: (none) Date: 30 Jun 1992 15:50:48 GMT
In article <CORYWEST.92Jun29215604@rio-grande.rice.edu> corywest@rice.edu (Cory West) writes:
>In article <1992Jun30.004140.4543@athena.mit.edu>
>jwiegand@moe.eng.temple.edu writes:
>> This explosive growth is the result of what I believe is a unique phenomena:
>> collective, distributed development. I have been unable to find any project
>
> I agree that this disributed development phenomena is incredible!
>I think that this style of development will spur on many more projects and
>products that will greatly benefit all of us. I also feel that we are only
However, the problem I forsee with projects like this is a lack of
(i) co-oridnation
(ii) quality control
This style of programming is what makes Linux a hackers OS. You can
never tell whether the next upgrade introduces a bug in previously working
code.
And what works for one person may blow up when combined with another persons
work.
The only way around this would be to bottleneck the whole procedure through
a person/committe leading developement. This is what the mailing lists
*try* and do......
I'm sure Linus would hate to have to rigorously check EVERY patch that
goes to him - he'd never have any time to program himself :-)
That this style of distributed working has achieved something worthwhile is
IMHO a miracle. With no organisation to speak of, Linux is on its way to
becoming a legend in Unix mythology.
Whether it could work on more formal systems is debateable.
--
Stephen Harris
sweh@spuddy.uucp ...!uknet!axion!spuddy!sweh
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