Just like in our DNA...

[David Oppenheimer]

Michael Vanier wrote:

> Here's a quote from Guido in a recent interview
> (http://207.178.22.52/articles/conversations/005.html):
>
> > The tools will give them a lot of hand holding, a lot of insight into the
> > existing code and will help them get an idea of what the consequences of
> > changes would be. That is, you can say, ``Okay, now I have this code and
> > I think I want to make this change. You tell me where this variable is
> > used elsewhere in the program--what the dependencies are, what code is
> > using this function. Maybe this function isn't being used at all!'' Just
> > like in our DNA, there are large pieces of software containing unused
> > code. Nobody noticed it was no longer needed, so nobody bothered to take
> > it out.
>

I'm not sure if he should have used DNA as an example.  I'm OK with extra info
being in my DNA.  My Nuclei have never given me an error message that the
nucleus is running out of space...lol.

Maybe a head-on assault on the bloatware produced by a certain company in
Redmond Washington would have been more appropriate.  I have heard that around
40% of the code for Windoze 2000 is just filler (DLL's that will never be used,
hidden programs that no one needs or knows about) that does nothing at all but
take up hard drive space.

The most absurd thing that I have recently heard is that M$ is trying out the
concept of "renting" their software instead of selling it.  If M$ products were
an apartment instead of software, they'd be expensive, filled with cockroaches,
too large, and would be filled with a million wonderful appliances that most
people would never use.  Those appliances that you would want to use would be
broken half the time.  To make them work properly would require you to turn out
all the lights and appliances in your apartment, flip the main circuit breaker,
leave the apartment and lock it up, and then unlock and enter the apartment,
flip the main circuit breaker, turn on all the lights, and then turn your
appliances on again.

Imagine using a piece of software, spending hundreds of hours coding and
creating a project, and then Bill raises the rent on your software right before
you finish a project.  I'm not going to be lining up to have Bill Gates be my
landlord!  If M$ decides that renting their software is the thing to do and
eliminates outright retail sales, this will be the necessary push that takes me
over to the Linux side.

As to the signature line, I trust that this is sarcasm.  Please tell me that
you don't view advocating a certain OS as some type of religious crusade.  I
hope that Linux and Windows can challenge each other to make better, more
functional software.  A marketplace with healthy competitors and lots of choice
for consumers is of great benefit to us all.

What really needs to happen for greater acceptance of Linux is that the
business mindset of "If it doesn't come in a shrink-wrapped package, then it's
shit!" needs to change.  Open source software and open source technologies tend
to be less buggy and more efficient than proprietary ones.  Yahoo and Walnut
Creek CD-ROM (the two sites with the most traffic and data transfer on Earth)
use Free BSD to run their sites because this free software is the best product
available.  Both companies would certainly buy better software if it existed
but in their load balancing environments and with their security needs, nothing
else compares.


> With all due respect to Guido, who is usually the most low-key no-bullshit
> person on the planet, the statement about DNA is a beautiful example of
> marketing-speak.  I thought I was reading an interview with Steve Jobs for
> a second :-)  Guido, did they slip something into your coffee? ;-)

I think you may have gone a bit too far by insinuating that Guido was
"chemically inconvenienced" when he made his statement.  You could have easily
rewritten your paragraph in the following sentence: "With all due respect, were
you high when you said this?"  Prefacing an insult with the clause "with all
due respect" does not make an insult any less insulting.  Leave the guy alone.
As long as Guido doesn't say "I am going to discontinue my work on Python as
open source and create a better, proprietary software," I could care less what
he says.  Simplistic, even absurd metaphorical comparisons are often made in an
attempt to reach the minds of the intellectually challenged.

>
>
> No offense meant, really.  I was just a little surprised.
>
> Mike
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> Mike Vanier     mvanier at bbb.caltech.edu
> Department of Computation and Neural Systems, Caltech 216-76
> GNU/Linux: We can't lose; we're on a mission from God.

Sincerely,

David Oppenheimer

P.S. Guido's a cool dude.  Leave him alone.  Did you never hear you the saying
"If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all!" ? You can
take issue with a person's statements without turning it into a personal
attack.  You will notice that I did not personally attack you or insinuate you
were on drugs anywhere in this post.