I use much less open source UI than I did ten years ago. A huge portion of the infrastructural code we rely on is open, but almost all of the user interfaces I actually touch every day are closed. If I want to tweak something, I have to resort to hacks.
Additionally, if I write or modify an open source web service, there's the whole problem of hosting it. I have to essentially start a small business to host it. Or leave that to the users, which sort of defeats the purpose of a web service. If I want to change a single feature of Wikipedia, I have to re-host the entire thing AND have a plan for staying in sync with their centralized database.
As a result, the world of open source user-facing software is developing an order of magnitude slower than open source infrastructure software. That's sad.
If I could simply write a web service, push it into a decentralized hosting network, and have the cost of keeping it deployed spread out across the network of users, then it becomes much more tenable to be a developer of open source web apps and services. Doubly so if there is a mechanism for me to get micropayments for the code.
I think if Maidsafe or something similar succeed, it will lead to a Cambrian Explosion of open source software. I know I'd write and patch lot more of it.
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Here's why I want this:
I use much less open source UI than I did ten years ago. A huge portion of the infrastructural code we rely on is open, but almost all of the user interfaces I actually touch every day are closed. If I want to tweak something, I have to resort to hacks.
Additionally, if I write or modify an open source web service, there's the whole problem of hosting it. I have to essentially start a small business to host it. Or leave that to the users, which sort of defeats the purpose of a web service. If I want to change a single feature of Wikipedia, I have to re-host the entire thing AND have a plan for staying in sync with their centralized database.
As a result, the world of open source user-facing software is developing an order of magnitude slower than open source infrastructure software. That's sad.
If I could simply write a web service, push it into a decentralized hosting network, and have the cost of keeping it deployed spread out across the network of users, then it becomes much more tenable to be a developer of open source web apps and services. Doubly so if there is a mechanism for me to get micropayments for the code.
I think if Maidsafe or something similar succeed, it will lead to a Cambrian Explosion of open source software. I know I'd write and patch lot more of it.
That's why I want it.