Open Source is one person • Hacker News Board

Re: Open Source is one person

#41

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Thu, Aug 28, 2025, 1:35 PM UTC

ii41 wrote: post #40

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Russia (or China, either) has been truly communist, in a long time. Not sure there are any real communist nations left. It's one of those ideologies that looks good on paper, but falls apart, as soon as humans get added to the soup. Idealists never seem to account for base human nature.

Your parent comment labeled themselves off-topic but I'd say they were still pretty on it, but you're like way too off-topic. The point isn't whether some country or some people are real communists or not, but that an individual shouldn't be harassed for maintaining open source software and can somehow be linked to some rival of the West.

Fair point.

But, to be fair, the note about not taking human nature into account, applies everywhere.

I think that we've all seen very smart people fail to account for human nature, and things go badly.

Open source/free work is very human, and I have found it important to keep human nature in mind, as I work.

Re: Open Source is one person

#42

Post by ii41 » Thu, Aug 28, 2025, 1:36 PM UTC

blueflow wrote: post #22

ysofunny wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

software once "perfected" (working well enough long enough) needs NO maintenance. No cleaning. No calibrating/tunning. updating is a systemic issue, not a per-project matter

Maybe we need a Linux distro based on "inactive" software and look how reliably it performs.

I was once forced to use older (but not deprecated) LTS Ubuntu and I hated it. New software come out and you're gonna want to use them (often forced to use them), and they of course use newer dependencies. I had to do the distribution maintainer job and package a bunch of software myself.

Re: Open Source is one person

#43

Post by kube-system » Thu, Aug 28, 2025, 1:42 PM UTC

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #6

I've heard good things about work done by this guy Linus. I'm pretty sure that I've used his work. I think he comes from a country that borders Russia, so should we be worried? I've done OSS for decades; mostly by myself, but sometimes, in teams of volunteers. If anyone has any experience, working in teams of volunteers, it can be ... challenging . It can definitely work, but not as often as you'd think. If it works,…

Linux is a well supported project with a lot of maintainers and support, it isn't a one-man project by Linus.

Re: Open Source is one person

#44

Post by rauli_ » Thu, Aug 28, 2025, 1:43 PM UTC

lo_zamoyski wrote: post #32

tarvaina wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Off topic.) Not only that, but Linus's parents were politically active communists and young Linus was a pioneer (like a boy scout but for communists). His father also lived in Moscow for several years on two separate occasions.

> Linus was a pioneer Being a Young Pioneer or joining the Komsomol was not officially mandatory, but it functioned as a gatekeeper for any kind of advancement. Party membership operated the same way. So, by themselves, they don't tell you whether the person in question is a communist.

Not in Finland which has never been a communist country. His parents were just political activists who forced young Linus to participate in that as well. Linus has said that the experience made him very apolitical person.

Re: Open Source is one person

#45

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Thu, Aug 28, 2025, 1:44 PM UTC

kube-system wrote: post #43

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #6

I've heard good things about work done by this guy Linus. I'm pretty sure that I've used his work. I think he comes from a country that borders Russia, so should we be worried? I've done OSS for decades; mostly by myself, but sometimes, in teams of volunteers. If anyone has any experience, working in teams of volunteers, it can be ... challenging . It can definitely work, but not as often as you'd think. If it works,…

Linux is a well supported project with a lot of maintainers and support, it isn't a one-man project by Linus.

Not anymore, but that was not always the case. He just has an extremely strong will, and a force of personality, that was able to shepherd the project through its nascent challenges.

I have founded fairly important projects (nowhere near on the scale of his work, though), but I don't have the force of personality he does, so tossing the keys to a new team, and walking away, is what worked for me.

Re: Open Source is one person

#46

Post by kube-system » Thu, Aug 28, 2025, 1:50 PM UTC

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #45

kube-system wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux is a well supported project with a lot of maintainers and support, it isn't a one-man project by Linus.

Not anymore, but that was not always the case. He just has an extremely strong will, and a force of personality, that was able to shepherd the project through its nascent challenges. I have founded fairly important projects (nowhere near on the scale of his work, though), but I don't have the force of personality he does, so tossing the keys to a new team, and walking away, is what worked for me.

Of course, and likewise it wasn't always the case that Linux was a well trusted operating system with a robust supply chain. It took a lot of time, people, and investment to prove that out. The organizations who cared about their technology supply chain, didn't adopt it until that was the case. These are some of the forces that built companies like Red Hat.

Re: Open Source is one person

#47

Post by axelpacheco » Thu, Aug 28, 2025, 1:56 PM UTC

Another case of power law distribution being all around us. I wonder how many commits of the 1M+ downloads projects maintained by more than one person, were done by just one person?

Re: Open Source is one person

#48

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 28, 2025, 2:05 PM UTC

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #6

I've heard good things about work done by this guy Linus. I'm pretty sure that I've used his work. I think he comes from a country that borders Russia, so should we be worried? I've done OSS for decades; mostly by myself, but sometimes, in teams of volunteers. If anyone has any experience, working in teams of volunteers, it can be ... challenging . It can definitely work, but not as often as you'd think. If it works,…

[deleted]

Re: Open Source is one person

#49

Post by didgetmaster » Thu, Aug 28, 2025, 2:11 PM UTC

Has anyone seen any stats on what happens to a single maintainer project when said person is hit by a bus (or meets some other demise)? With that many data points, there should be enough of them by now to study it.

Is the project taken over by another, single developer? Is it replaced by a similar project? Does it just go away?

Re: Open Source is one person

#50

Post by lo_zamoyski » Thu, Aug 28, 2025, 2:12 PM UTC

rauli_ wrote: post #44

lo_zamoyski wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Linus was a pioneer Being a Young Pioneer or joining the Komsomol was not officially mandatory, but it functioned as a gatekeeper for any kind of advancement. Party membership operated the same way. So, by themselves, they don't tell you whether the person in question is a communist.

Not in Finland which has never been a communist country. His parents were just political activists who forced young Linus to participate in that as well. Linus has said that the experience made him very apolitical person.

Ah, whoops! I mistook Linus as the name of the Russian developer in question, whose name is actually Denis.

(The whole first name thing in software circles kind of irritates me.)