[theforum] weo 2b: to OSS or not?

Sabrina Dent, Apperception sabrina.dent at appercept.co.uk
Sun Nov 7 18:15:48 CST 2004


 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: theforum-bounces at lists.evolt.org 
> [mailto:theforum-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Martin Burns
> Sent: 07 November 2004 22:41
>
> So we need to decide whether - as a point of principle - we 
> want evolt.org to run on Open Source Software as the default 
> situation. I'm presuming (feel free to challenge) that 
> whatever we decide as the ideal, if 
> requirements/circumstances dictate otherwise, we won't get 
> all fundamentalist on this, as technology is just an enabler 
> for the community (right?)

It isn't a point of principle, it's a point of practicality.

Given the current codebase, were .jeff to get hit by a truck, the communal
we would be screwz0red and begging to be dependent on a very few members of
the community able to hit the ground running and take responsibility for
maintaining the code. OSS is by definition open to the entire community of
evolt coders. We have, and given the state of the modern programming world,
always *will* have, a large pool of people to contribute to and maintain a
system built on OSS.

OSS is the most widely distributed key, and therefore, the practical choice.

If you do want to talk principle, I think the code for evolt should be open
to the public, and that in order to be of real value, that code should not
be Yet Another Roles Based Authentication System. It should be based on
existing OSS.

And now that you mention it, I do actually feel pretty fundamentalist about
both of those points :)

OSS +1

--Sabrina



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