Tim O’Reilly, of O’Reilly Media, Inc., discussing the idea of government as a platform vs. government as a vending machine at OSCON 2009 (20 mins):
Tim’s thoughts here echo, add flesh around, and enhance some concepts that will be discussed in the piece that I’d been writing throughout parts of my recent vacation to Greece.
A more concise summary of these ideas is also available for those with time constraints (4 mins):
I’ve just invested several hours trying to get my system to use the Pear libraries from MacPorts rather than the Pear libraries I had installed years ago using the command line installer, as described here. This is largely because I’m happy to let the MacPorts package manager take care of upgrading my software, and making sure all inter-dependencies are looked after.
The command line installer adds files to the traditional /usr/local directory, while the MacPorts package manager adds the files to /opt/local.
Unix. It’s astonishingly flexible. This is, at different times, either wonderful or maddening. Sometimes even both at once.
Because of the flexibility it offers, there are several ways a particular enhancement or customization can be added to the system, and you are free to pick the one that best suits your needs or preference. The ensuing burden of this flexibility, however, becomes a responsibility on your end to mind just how you added each enhancement or customization, in case you later need to adjust it.
While you’re naturally free not to track such details, this practice guarantees that you’ll spend as much time trying to “re-figure-out” that clever enhancement or customization you figured out how to apply in your own special way.
History has taught me that any of these clever enhancements and customizations will eventually need revisiting. It’s inevitable… like destiny, except less romantic.
Ballmer’s at it again, idly laughing off Google’s Chrome OS … last thing he laughed off so boisterously was the iPhone, which he claimed had “no chance.”
Gruber, writing about what he calls the Apple Way (emphasis added):
Are software touchscreen keyboards good for everyone? Certainly not. But this is another aspect of the Apple Way. Apple tries to make things that many people love, not things that all people like. The key is that they’re not afraid of the staunch criticism, and often outright derision, that comes with breaking conventions.
[...]
That the iPhone — or specifically its software touchscreen keyboard — does not appeal to everyone is not a problem. Nothing appeals to everyone. Even if you try to make something that appeals to everyone by adding every single clamored-for feature, you wind up with something like Windows that does not appeal to people with a taste for the elegant and refined.
And so Apple demonstrate mastery of yet another classic showmanship tactic: know your audience.
