Comment by jsnx | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jsnx | Hacker News Reader

The author doesn't really seem to get what Linux does:

My guess is that a poorly encapsulated, communal gloop of organisms lost out to closely guarded species for the same reason that the Linux community didn't come up with the iPhone: Encapsulation serves a purpose.

Since when did Linus and friends come up with hardware? Does he mean the "community of people who rely on Linux as the core of their product offering?" -- would he then include Apple in the BSD community?

By his own criterion, Apple would be the perfect shop for OS innovation -- but I guess they just weren't feeling innovative that day and switched to FreeBSD instead. By doing so, they got the benefit of evolution -- not as snazzy as innovation, but something open source has excelled at for its long life.

Good point about Apple and OS innovation.

Wasn't Apple the company that had nearly a decade of abandoned "next generation" operating systems (Pink, StarTrek, Raptor, NuKernel, TalOS, Copland, Gershwin) before finally buying NeXT (based on open-source Mach from CMU) and later establishing a cooperative coexistence with FreeBSD.

Innovation is often understood to mean one of two different things -- pushing boundaries and changing the world, and filling a niche that no one else is filling. They are different things. I'm sad to say it, but I think the first kind is often rooted in dreamy hubris, and thus fails; while the second one -- which is all about a willingness to serve -- does not appeal to the pride of entrepreneurs and will always be in demand in consequence.

The pace of innovation in computing will never again match that of the sixties or seventies -- lots of stuff has been built, has proven its value and been recorded in the Book of Wisdom. Whenever you think, "I know, let's build a such-and-such...", nowadays, you can be pretty sure it's been done at least half a dozen times. We really should emphasize looking back, to learn from history -- now that there is some.

As far as I can tell, the only computing field that does a good job of that is system administration -- experience, mentors and an appreciation for the "old ways" make up an integral part of that discipline.

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