In Internetnews.com, Dan Ravicher, executive director of the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) is quoted as saying: “Open source is not about having five different operating systems, it’s about everyone working together to create one rock-solid operating system.”
Wrong. The last “one rock solid operating system” was OS/360. Dan is suffering from a grievous lack of imagination. This is like Pamela at Groklaw, saying “The FOSS community needs to face the world with a united face”, and earlier “when [Sun] say ‘the Open Source community’… they don’t mean Linux. When I say ‘Open Source community,’ I do.”
Open source is about collaboration. It’s about groups (plural) coming together to work on stuff, and sharing the results. It’s not a cult, not a political movement, not a utopian (i.e. unrealistic) dream. Above all, it cannot be about monoculture: one technology, one group with one leader, one license, one goal. All monocultures are dangerous: Microsoft Windows, Monsanto’s ‘Terminator’ seeds, and influenza vaccine – even Linux if “true believers” have their way. I want more OSS operating systems, not fewer. I wish Palm would release BeOS to the world. (Yes, I know about OpenBeOS. I want the original.) I wish HP would post the full source of VMS for all to use. Competition is good. It’s good for engineering. It’s good for customers.
(For better coverage of these issues, check out Simon’s blog.)