I think it is sad that the "Open Source" Community (in quotes, because there is really no such thing and the term is inprecise) didn't come up with Dropbox on its own earlier.
There was rsync, there was unison, but none of them worked as transparently and flawlessly as Dropbox does. And now — we copy the successful entrepreneurs.
I somehow don't feel it is right — I would have loved for it to be the other way around.
Will we wait until somebody solves the other problems (E-mail, spam and E-mail attachments come to mind) and then copy their solution? Is that the best we can do?
librsync, libbzip, and a host of other LGPLd libraries are what make Dropbox go. There would be no Dropbox without the ""Open Source"" community. Dropbox--along with a lot of other companies (namely, Apple)--derive a lot of their success from going the last mile, that is wiring all these powerful OSS technologies together in a package that is intuitive and easy to use. Engineers typically are either uninterested in doing this, and that is why an open source Dropbox never came along.
My criticism of the Open Source community has been downvoted into oblivion. I think this is rather sad. I'm not against open source, in fact I regularly contribute to many projects. But I also think one should not be blind to the outside world.
Comments
I think it is sad that the "Open Source" Community (in quotes, because there is really no such thing and the term is inprecise) didn't come up with Dropbox on its own earlier.
There was rsync, there was unison, but none of them worked as transparently and flawlessly as Dropbox does. And now — we copy the successful entrepreneurs.
I somehow don't feel it is right — I would have loved for it to be the other way around.
Will we wait until somebody solves the other problems (E-mail, spam and E-mail attachments come to mind) and then copy their solution? Is that the best we can do?
librsync, libbzip, and a host of other LGPLd libraries are what make Dropbox go. There would be no Dropbox without the ""Open Source"" community. Dropbox--along with a lot of other companies (namely, Apple)--derive a lot of their success from going the last mile, that is wiring all these powerful OSS technologies together in a package that is intuitive and easy to use. Engineers typically are either uninterested in doing this, and that is why an open source Dropbox never came along.
My criticism of the Open Source community has been downvoted into oblivion. I think this is rather sad. I'm not against open source, in fact I regularly contribute to many projects. But I also think one should not be blind to the outside world.