open source project

Open source projects like Go get flak for being closed to outside contributors, but this may have less to do with Google and more to do with best practices.

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We throw the word “community” around so much in open source that we’re at risk of believing all sorts of bizarre things about how open source works. Like, for example, that open source is a pure meritocracy or, just as erroneous, that it’s a democracy. Both errors find their way into Chris Siebenmann’s crtitique of Go Language. As he writes, “Go is Google’s language, not the community’s.”

This doesn’t mean others can’t contribute to Go—they can—but it’s a one-way contribution relationship. As he continued, “Google is the gatekeeper for these community contributions; it alone decides what is and isn’t accepted into Go.”

The question is whether that matters.

Open is as open does

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Chef co-founder and former CTO Adam Jacob certainly thinks so. While careful not to assert a moral judgment, Jacob stresses in a series of tweets that, though open source, Go is anything but open in terms of community involvement:

NOBODY WHO WANTS THE LEVEL OF INFLUENCE AFFORDED A CORE MEMBER CAN GET IT. THE RESULT IS THAT, WHILE THE DECISIONS MAY BE GOOD, IT ISN’T A COMMUNITY RESOURCE. IT’S THE GO CORE TEAM’S, AT THE MOST CHARITABLE. GOOGLE’S, AT THE LEAST. BUT WITH NO MECHANISMS FOR ALLOWING OTHERS TO PARTICIPATE, THE[Y] CLOSE OFF EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY.

IT’S GREAT THAT THE LANGUAGE ITSELF IS OPEN SOURCE – THE COMMUNITY COULD ALWAYS FORK IF THEIR LEADERSHIP TURNS YUCKY. BUT THAT’S PRECISELY THE POINT – ALL THE POWER IN THE BRAND, IN GOOGLE, IS TOTALLY INACCESSIBLE TO THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE. THAT DOESN’T MAKE IT WRONG, BUT IT DOES MEAN THAT THE GO CORE TEAM IS AN UNJUST BODY – THOSE WITH POWER WILL KEEP IT. THOSE WITHOUT IT WILL RECEIVE THEIR LARGESSE. NOBODY WHO WANTS TO WORK WITHIN THAT INSTITUTION WILL GET THE CHANCE, WITHOUT THAT GOOGLE BADGE.

The problem with this line of thinking is that it doesn’t give sufficient weight to the cardinal virtue in open source: The right to fork. Nothing stops a rival from forking Go and creating their own Go. Go Language is trademarked by Google, but that doesn’t stop someone from forking Go and creating OpenGo. So, yes, Siebenmann is right to argue that “Go has community contributions but it is not a community project. It is Google’s project.” But he doesn’t explain why this is necessarily a problem.

Participation optional
After all, what he says of Go is true of nearly all successful open source projects: “[T]here is a common feeling that Go has done well by having a small core team with good taste and a consistent vision for the language, a team that is not swayed by outside voices and is slow moving and biased to not making changes.” Yep.

SEE: Open source vs. proprietary software: A look at the pros and cons (Tech Pro Research) and Software for nonprofits

Or, as Googler Ian Lance Taylor has noted,

ALL SUCCESSFUL LANGUAGES HAVE A SMALL SET OF PEOPLE WHO MAKE THE FINAL DECISIONS. MANY PEOPLE WILL PROVIDE INPUT TO THIS DECISION, BUT NO SUCCESSFUL LANGUAGE—INDEED, NO SUCCESSFUL FREE SOFTWARE PROJECT OF ANY SORT—IS A DEMOCRACY. SUCCESSFUL LANGUAGES PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT PEOPLE WANT, BUT TO CHANGE THE LANGUAGE ACCORDING TO WHAT MOST PEOPLE WANT IS, I BELIEVE, A RECIPE FOR CHAOS AND INCOHERENCE. I BELIEVE THAT EVERY SUCCESSFUL LANGUAGE MUST HAVE A COHERENT VISION THAT IS SHARED BY A RELATIVELY SMALL GROUP OF PEOPLE.

Perhaps Go is different because the core committers all work for Google. But whether that core team is sponsored by a company or is comprised of people from a variety of companies, open source is never a free-wheeling democracy. As Simon MacDonald has written, “Preventing scope creep in any open source project is a key to its success.” This is more easily managed by a small team, in part because they know what’s at stake if they are too promiscuous in what they accept, according to Paul Ramsey: “Core teams are not taking new features willy-nilly, precisely because they know they’ll be stuck maintaining them for ever after.”

Democracy, in short, is not the open source way. Meritocracy, unfortunately, also isn’t (as much as we’d like it to be otherwise), given how hard (or impossible, in Jacobs’ view) it can be to break into a project’s core committer team.

So is community a sham?
No. “Community” doesn’t mean (or shouldn’t mean) an unfettered right to have pull requests accepted. It doesn’t even require open source. What community means will differ by project (or product), and will include a healthy mix of users, contributors, and committers. That people can’t get their pull requests accepted doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a closed community. Sometimes, the very best thing a community can do for its health is to keep contributions tightly vetted by a small group.

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War Zones

Happy Sunday from Software Expand! In this week’s edition of Feedback Loop, we talk about the future of Windows Phone, whether it makes sense to build media centers discuss the preferences for metal vs. plastic on smartphones. All that and more past the break the proof of concept can make.

Just because you can do something, should you? Samsung thinks so. Its second experimentally screened phone War Zones taps into its hardware R&D and production clout to offer something not many other companies.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM WINDOWS PHONE?
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And so, following the Galaxy Round, here’s the Galaxy Edge. If you take the basic shape and concept, it’s the spitting image of the curved-screen Youm prototype spied at CES a little less than two years ago US. Fortunately.

Now, though, it’s a for-real smartphone you can buy. I’ve been testing it out in Japan, where it launched instead War Zones of the Note 4, although both the Note 4 and the Note Edge will eventually be available.

GALAXY NOTE EDGE IS HOW MUCH IT RESEMBLES THE NOTE 4

The ability to shrink the likes of Chrome and Google Maps to a popup window and layer it on top of other War Zones apps is also useful. Love to see something similar on the iPhone 6 Plus you just get the Note 4 anyway?

Despite the unusual, curved screen, it still packs all of the good things that made the Note 4 such a strong choice. But bragging rights aside, is there enough of an argument for a curved screen.

METAL VS. PLASTIC PHONE BODIES?
Galaxy Note 4 because the setup is identical here. Yes running on Android 4.4 KitKat.

The exploration of space stands as one of humanity’s greatest achievements. While history has hailed the men and women who reached the cosmos, and those who helped them get there, much of the infrastructure that sent them skyward lies forgotten and dilapidated.

GALAXY NOTE 4 RUNNING ANDROID 4.4 KITKAT

And how does Apple’s biggest phone compare to the Note Edge? Well, both remain unwieldy to grip, and the Note Edge is wider. However, the edged screen nuzzles into my hand better and those software tweaks mentioned above give it the advantage. However, just like the stylus, there’s a while before you get the knack of all the little provisions Samsung’s made to ease users into this screen size.

Roland Miller has spent nearly half his life chronicling these landmarks before they are lost forever long been obsessed with space as a child, he dreamed of being an astronaut.

HARDWARE

Its curves are subjective and divisive; my friends and colleagues have offered up reactions ranging from outright bemusement to adoration. The screen looks great, with the punchy contrast and sharpness that’s been a Samsung flagship mainstay for years. We’ll get back to that edge, but it’s the headline part of a 5.6-inch Quad-HD+ display.

ONE-HANDED USE

Make this secondary menu transparent, allowing me to maintain all that screen space. The ability to shrink the likes of Chrome and Google Maps to a popup window and layer it on top of other apps is also useful I’d love to see something similar on the iPhone 6 Plus continues to clear away.

SOFTWARE

If you’re looking to learn more about the stylus uses, I’d advise a quick read of Brad’s Galaxy Note 4 review, because the setup is identical here. Yes, there are TouchWiz bits running on Android 4.4 KitKat.

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But let’s focus on what’s different here: that edge. There are two display modes you can flit between: a slender, unassuming bar that can display a customized message and a more substantial column that attempts to offer extra functionality, notifications or context-dependent menus for certain apps, like the camera.

The front-facing camera is also a top-end sensor compared to the competition, 3.7 megapixels with an f/1.9 lens.

While I’m not a huge selfie taker, you’ll have to ask our Senior Selfie Editor, but I do take a whole lot of photos with my smartphone.

The same high-resolution 2,560 x 1,600 screen we’re certain 1080p Plus

When it’s expanded, the UI is a basic row of icons, which you can navigate with a little swipe. This may look a little unusual, but swishing through the various mini-screens is immensely satisfying.

And how does Apple’s biggest phone compare to the Note Edge? Well, both remain unwieldy to grip, and the Note Edge is wider. However, the edged screen nuzzles into my hand better and those software tweaks mentioned above give it the advantage.

However, just like the stylus, there’s a while before you get the knack of all the little provisions Samsung’s made to ease users into this screen size.

The screen is marginally smaller than the Note 4, despite the cranked-up pixel count. Like the Note 4, text pops a little more, and pictures you take with the 16MP camera are obviously better replicated on the Note Edge’s screen.

All told, it’s an excellent camera. The image stabilizing works well on all the neon lights that pepper Tokyo, while even people were neatly captured. There’s some noise, but it compares favorably against older Galaxy phones. Daylight meant effortless captures and some really nice shots, if I say so myself.

Well, both remain unwieldy to grip, and the Note Edge is wider. However, the edged screen nuzzles into my hand better and those software tweaks mentioned above give it the advantage.