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Technology Stocks : Red Hat Software Inc. (Nasdq-RHAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Pink Minion who wrote (1032)	9/8/1999 12:48:00 PM
From: Eric Wells	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1794

>>If it's good code, it will get put in. That's the key issue. Let's say that a group of developers in Finland create a module which is incorporated into Linux. Imagine if two years later, a data corrupting bug is found in that module - yet in the interim, the Finnish development group has dissolved, and the developers that know the code can't be found. To deal with this situation, whatever group is managing the Open Source development of Linux (I don't know what group this is - is it the Linux Open Source Consortium?) will have to implement strict guidelines regarding coding techniques and nomenclature, as well as code documentation. These guidelines will be viewed as a hindrance to Open Source developers who are more inclined toward the notion of "software coding freedom". And there is the risk of there being multiple Linux consortiums with different standards competing against one another. And why should that Finnish development team spend a lot of time and energy coding, as well as adhering to coding standards, if it is only going to profit companies like Red Hat, who sell Linux. The Finnish development team is going to need to set up a compensation model - some sort of royalty payment for their code. Also - is there a group of Open Source Linux code testers? Anyone who works in software development knows that developers don't always do a good job of testing their own code. So who does the testing? Companies like Red Hat? Or is testing built into the guidelines of the ruling consortium? Or perhaps there will be a crop of Linux code testing companies that will come to market. All this leads to layers of bureaucracy - that in my view, will slow the process of innovation. I would take a team of 400 Windows NT developers that work directly for me over a team of 100,000 Linux developers who work for no one any day. And I think Red Hat will be forced into a similar choice - I see a future where most of the innovations in Red Hat Linux are developed by Red Hat. After all, Red Hat has to answer the phone calls from their customers and fix the bugs their customers report - which is much more easily done when you are working with your own code. By the way, Mshater - you wouldn't perhaps have a bias as indicated by your SI alias? I admit that I once worked for Microsoft - but not in their systems division. However, I would not characterize myself as an "Mslover" - it has been a few years since I worked there. And again, for the record, I have no position in RHAT as I type. Thanks, -Eric Wells