Whilst watching the replay of Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Stephen Hendry today I was reminded of a conversation I’d had with Kevin Rapley, Daniel Davies and Danny Smith at the last Birmingham blogmeet. Cor, name-dropper me.
Dan Davies (who, to lessen confusion shall henceforth be known by his web-name as Danux) was quizzing me over a post I’d written about open source web technologies, upon which he’d already commented. At this point I was set upon by both Daniels and accosted. Danny Smith wanted to know why I couldn’t get behind the open source ethos and posited the theory that it’s all about the underdog, a concept we Brits love. (I can hear the Great Escape theme in my head as I type.)
This was a viewpoint I could understand, and it was the first time anyone had tried to intelligently explain why open source has value, apart from the financial benefits of not having to pay for your software. This helped me understand why I have the utmost respect for the open source ethos but will always choose the best solution to a problem (ie: the problem of finding a good web browser) based on technical factors rather than a shared communal empathy.
I don’t mean to belittle the idea at all, and I can completely understand it. People like to see others “sticking it to the man”, including me, but for whatever reason that doesn’t translate to my digital world. I choose software based on how good it looks (I equate this with an idea of “build quality”), how good the support seems to be, how compatible it is with my current system, and of course the price.
Because most open source applications are developed for the love of programming rather than to fulfil a commercial requirement, the UX element can slip. Plus most open source programs are built to be compatible with other open source programs, which really means Linux.
What interested me more is the idea of the underdog in a wider digital sense, and how it can affect other choices we make online. My friend Dave wrote a post entitled Apple is Totally Anti-competitive and got what can only be described as a barrage of abuse in comment form. Some of it was down to a few accidental factoids, but a good deal of it was down to the fact that Dave had simply dared to pour scorn on the mighty Apple.
People love Apple in a way that they don’t love any other company. People love Google but who loves Yahoo? They’ve all propagated evil, but because we think of them as the underdogs, this stuff gets automatically edited out by our subconscious. Microsoft are no more anti-competitive than Apple, but it’s Bill Gates’ wrists that get slapped when he tries to bundle software together, so when Steve Jobs makes iTunes the only way to sync your iPod without it breaking or distributes Safari under the guise of a software update, the technology community raises an eyebrow and that’s it.
I’m neither an Apple fanboy nor a Microsoft…er…lover, but the quite obvious double standards that exist around technology and intellectual property boggle my noggin.
So why the Ronnie reference? Well, here’s a man who has been playing professional snooker since ’92, has had nine 147 breaks and was the highest ranked 2002, ’04 and ’05 (get all the stats at snooker.org), but because he has a history of mental problems and has been known to crack under pressure, and because we know he’s capable of so much more, he’s always the one the crowds flock to the Crucible to see. Although no-one would call Ronnie the underdog, we attach the same romanticism to him as we would with any fresh new talent.
And that’s the case with the likes of Apple and Google. Their fans have a romantic link with these corporations in much the same way as open source developers do with the platforms they use, but what confuses me is when Apple talk about chasing three blokes in Miami for opening up the OSX platform or MySQL sells for $1 billion, this does nothing to curb the romance.
Maybe I’m just an old stick-in-the mud. Yeah, that’s probably it.
I’m still bruised mate.
Been looking around the place and found the following interesting article written about how Apple over-enthusiasts are actually damaging the Mac they love so much.
I’ve got to say there is more than a ring of truth to it - why would I want to be part of and perhaps rely on help from a community like that?
Still got to respect the marketing though!
Also got to mention that I disagree that open source means Linux - there is still a huge open source following on Windows although admittedly the proportion is lower.
The biggest issue for me is, as we discussed, a lot of open source software is developed for developers enjoyment and therefore things aren’t necessarily done for the end users’ benefit.