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Linux is written by amateurs | 117 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Linux is written by amateurs
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, May 12 2013 @ 06:04 AM EDT
I spend time on both sides of the 'open' fence, be it as a
very, very minor league player on the 'open' side.

The big difference between my professional and my hobby
stuff:

- Professional stuff gets shipped when it is 'good enough'.
- Hobby stuff is never shipped. It is available at all times,
and tagged 'release' when it is plain 'good'.

The cause: In hobby mode I have no budget and time
constraints. But: I am constantly aware that my stuff is at
source level open for inspection at all times.

After some little education, my professional context now
grasps what I mean when I sneer at my professional work,
saying things like: For my hobby projects, I could never,
ever, get away with this; The folks reading my source would
keelhaul me for releasing this. Mind you, the professional
stuff really *is* -when shipped- good enough for its purpose,
but it is just not the same.

Before sneering at 'produced by hobbyists', I say: Practice a
little caution; Big FLOSS is produced by top notch amateurs.

In the hobby context, I have tutored other hobbyists. I have
also been a tutor at university. The difference is
interesting to say the least. Hobbyists distribute knowledge
like a bit-torrent: Peer-to-peer and demand-based. And we all
know how efficient that can be: it 'scales'.

As for the hobbyists' reference material: Those FLOSS mailing
lists and bulletin-boards include a memory of all questions
and answers that have ever come up. "Have you googled that?"
is a question any hobbyist asking questions is confronted
with very early on.

Another reason to practice caution: The hobbyist well
deserving your sneers today is exposed to an education
mechanism that will give any traditional education system a
run for its money.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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