Open Source won’t get you laid.
I just read Jaron Lanier (father of virtual reality, etc.)’s December blog post, “Long Live Closed-Source Software,” re: the open-source movement’s ability to create faithful copies and complete inability to innovate in the user space.
Although I use some open source software RELIGIOUSLY (Firefox web browser, QuickSilver, some web coding programs), Lanier’s totally fuckin right — NONE of the really interesting software is open-source. Damn. I was totally hoodwinked into thinking open-source was the future for EVERYTHING. (the funny thing is, Chad’s been saying “Fuck open source” like 18 months ago, so what’s up now mister virtual reality?) Open-source is great as a phenomenon and a fun way to waste time or do some busywork, but it simply doesn’t produce exciting things. (the only exception to this i can think of is rasterman’s Enlightenment).
By way of proving the point completely UN-scientificly, here are the ten coolest programs I’ve ever used. Many of these have in-/directly gotten me laid. No open source software can make that claim.
Most Exciting Software (Which Also Happens to be Closed Source)
- BeOS.
- LifeBlog.
- Macromind Director.
- Lightroom.
- After Effects.
- Skitch.
- Keynote.
- Kai’s Power Tools.
- iTunes.
- Delicious Library.
- Bits on Wheels.
- Jitter.
I’ll say one more thing — open source is about potential. The best open source software is all software to make more software: vim, emacs, subversion. Programmers love making tools to make tools. But potential is not delivery. Especially when you’re in a hurry to create something.
LOCK IT DOWN! :-)
Final disclaimer: when I was a coder, I open-sourced my own code (and I would do it again), and I fought to open source my team’s code. Open source is a great learning tool for new programmers. And showing work in progress is a great way to bolster confidence, avoid pitfalls, and find inspiration. It’s just not a process for delivering great experiences.
Followup: I thought of an exception: Adium. Go Adium! You are the only open-source software under active development with an exceptional experience, as we used to say at Organic.