ChrisA says in my comments:
Hey Rory,
Maybe it time to swing to the other side of the fence and work on UNIX or Linux. Both are in desperate need for innovation and original thinking and you definately have enough creativity to supply.
That’d be a pretty definite no. A big fat NO with a helping of forgetabout it and, just for good measure, a side order of fuckthat.
I mean absolutely no disrespect whatsoever to the OSS community and the products they’ve created. Some of the work has actually been quite good. I’m reasonably impressed with Ubuntu, for example, although I’d rather give birth to the Statue of Liberty through my asshole than have to use Knoppix again. It really varies.
But the reason I wouldn’t want to work in an open source position has to do with these lines from The Empire Strikes Back (taking place when Han and crew are stuck in the belly of a gigantic space asteroid worm monster puppet thing):
INT. ASTEROID CAVE - MILLENNIUM FALCON - ENTRY AREA
As soon as Han and Leia are on board, Chewie closes the main hatch.
The ship continues to shake and heave.
HAN
All right, Chewie, let's get
out of here!
The Wookiee heads for the cockpit as Han, followed by Threepio, rushes
to the hold area and checks the scopes on the control panel. Leia
hurries after.
LEIA
The Empire is still out there.
I don't think it's wise to...
Han rushes past her and heads for the cockpit.
HAN
(interrupting)
No time to discuss this in
committee.
And with that he is gone. The main engines of the Falcon begin to
whine. Leia races after him, bouncing around in the shaking ship.
LEIA
(angry)
I am not a committee!
You might recall that this scene ends with everybody still alive. Why? Because Han, that uber suave, handsome, sexy-ass bastard of a space pirate (who reminds me just a little of myself), decided to ignore Leia’s pleas and head back out to the asteroid field without (and this it the key part) discussing it as a committee.
If Han had hung around and debated over the finer points of space worm escape while still in the midst of an Empire Search and Destroy mission, then everybody on board the Millennium Falcon would have died, and then there wouldn’t have been a third movie, and then there wouldn’t have been any bloody ewoks, so maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad, but the ewok thing isn’t the point.
The point is that it was Han’s quick thinking as a leader, and his bypassing of the usual democratic process which led to the survival of himself and his crew, that led to success.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
Have any of you read The Republic? I hope not, as it’s a dreadful book, but Plato made a couple good points, and one of them was that the democratic process is an effing waste of time unless the voters are educated.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
The open source world, which, by the by, is actually where I lived and breathed before I hopped over to the Microsoft side of things when XP and .NET hit, is this giant, dreamy, cyber-hippy world where everybody’s wearing rose colored glasses, binary-Birkenstocks, and smoking the demon weed while making tons of really bad decisions, partly due to the Feel Good reliance on things like the democratic process, which, again, is only useful if the people involved are more intelligent than oatmeal, and partly due to the involvement of the uneducated, unwashed (literally), and downright stupid masses.
Again, I mean no disrespect to the open source world, but this is the reality.
Look at Knoppix – when you open the Start menu (I know they don’t call it that, but that’s what it is), it looks like there were so many people working on the project that:
1. There was one separate person each to design a single pixel for each of the menu icons, so there’s no sense of visual consistency whatsoever
2. Twelve people were assigned the task of creating something which more or less approximates Windows’ Control Panel – and all attempts were included
3. Half the apps start with “K” while the other half don’t, and so seem as though they don’t belong
4. Some apps run in full-blown KDE mode, while others run in console mode (very confusing for your average end user)
That’s just the beginning – a few things off the top of my head. It looks like what it is: a project created like a group attempt at a Jackson Pollock painting:
"Knoppix" - By a Committee of Jackson Pollocks
It’s this reliance on group-think, committees (or “community processes” as they’re called in the nerd-world), and complete zealot idiocy that keeps me from wanting to work on open source projects. The truth is, I like the idea – I want to be part of something large and great and wonderful that’s the equivalent of a digital rainbow being shot out of a virtual Care-Bear’s belly, but the reality is where it all falls apart. When the major qualification to be part of a project is enthusiasm, it’s probably best to run, not walk, in the other direction.
At heart, what I really care about is getting shit done. The open source world is more about politics, licenses, community discussions, and so on than it is about actually making things that work. There are a few excellent examples to the contrary, but most open source projects die before they even go beyond the planning stage. That’s not something I want to be a part of.
And, to be fair, Microsoft isn’t immune to this. I feel, for example, that the team I’m currently on has been putting too much weight on functioning as a team, and not enough on actually getting work done. Working as a team is important, but only to the extent that it contributes a practical benefit. Sometimes you just have to be Han and tell Leia to shut up. Inside Microsoft, there are quite a few Leias. So, like I said, we’re not immune.
But, it’s still better for someone like me. While we listen to and value customer feedback, we don’t implement every customer’s desire. I’ve been approached about every feature of every application in our catalog going back to Donkey.bas, and there’s just no way in hell I’m going to pass all that feedback along. You have to choose which ideas are important and discard the rest. Somewhere, there needs to be a very real executive branch which just says, “STOP – this is as far as it goes.” In the open source world, with the exception of the higher profile projects, it’s going to be tough to do this because there is often not clear ownership over a project, and most people are not natural born leaders. The open source hippy method works around the idea of including people, making them feel valuable, and taking all ideas into consideration – like there’s no incoming filter on ideas. There’s also the freedom of the “It’s done when it’s done” deadline since so many projects have absolutely nothing to do with, say, making money. Release dates are unimportant (or simply non-existent), and this can mean feature creep.
Let’s face it. It’s just a clusterfuck mess.
If you want to see a company that’s done a fantastic job of implementing the Han Solo method of development while maintaining the democratic process, take a look at Google.
Those Fridays where Google employees are supposed to work on their pet projects? Absolutely freaking brilliant. For four days out of the week, these employees act as part of the Google machine. But, on the fifth day, they act as individuals, tinkering away on their own projects. Sure, most of the projects probably suck and will never see the light of day, but some of Google’s greatest successes are the result of these Friday loner sessions. It’s the best of both worlds – you get intelligent people working on collaborative projects four days out of the week, and then spending one day on their own interests, quickly producing successful products for the company without having to deal with the bureaucratic overhead of process. It’s the middle way, and it kicks ass. It’s also probably the closest thing I’ve ever seen to Renaissance Italy in our time, but that’s another post altogether.
(And, no, I’m not going to work for Google.)
So, while I take ChrisA’s comment as a compliment, I hope my reasons for avoiding open source are clear, and I haven’t even addressed why there’s a lack of “innovation and original thinking.” That, too, is another post.
I’m quite happy in the commercial, proprietary world. It’s not perfect, but it’s a place where things actually get done. Maybe not always on time, or with all the features originally planned, but still, done is done. And sometimes, to finish a project, you have to push it through, bypass the democratic process, go over people’s heads, and just finish what you’re working on.
In short, as I said earlier, to get things done, you need to be able to tell Leia to shut up.
That’s (just one reason) why I’m not moving back to the open source world.
Any questions?