The Bicycle (proprietary) versus Humble Feet (open source)
I haven’t written for some time now, and wow! What an inspiration:
ClearCase (proprietary) versus CVS (open source) - a rant on why one software tool is generally crappy and expensive, the other being great and free.
Is it because software is a bit abstract, that people make such ridiculous generalisations? For example, what does it mean “merges are causing errorneous code”? Who is performing these merges, the tool by itself?
Just for fun, Let’s make the whole story a bit more tangible:
Since this is my own personal blog, I decided to vent a bit on using a Bicycle® vs. walking.
Humble feet and The Bicycle® are both tools that we use for forward movement. We all know that humble feet are superior open source version, and The Bicycle® is an expensive and crappy proprietary tool.
We recently switched to The Bicycle® (supposedly for the superior speed). I fall down a couple of times every time I ride it, I am all washed-out by the continuous struggle to make The Bicycle® keep the balance and the mess of using the handlebars so that The Bicycle® keeps the chosen direction, is a horror. I also found that The Bicycle® is unable to drive straight without constant intervention. Nobody told me that!
Anyway, that’s where I stand, I’m an open source advocate, have been working with open source technologies for the past xyz years, and I’ve come to the conclusion that open source version is usually better than any proprietary solution.
I could think of many reasons for falling off The Bicycle® - I could have gotten a bicycle which is too big/too small, I could have been sitting backwards, I could have been expected to ride it, without having been told how to steer it, and so on. Unless a wheel has fallen off, The Bicycle® being crappy doesn’t sound like a good reason.
Were I to buy a bicycle I would make a short Q and A:
Q: Why do I want a bicycle? A: To move around quicker
Q: What are the expected advantages? A: 10 minutes shorter commute from A to B
Q: How do I want to use it? A: ride in the city, race on a track, make a forest outing, whatever
Q: What are the requirements? A: frame size, # of gears, brakes, tyres, price range, customer service, etc.
Q: Which of them best meets above criteria? A: The Bicycle®, The Trike®, maybe even we could go for The Moped®…
… Possibly there’s more things to consider, than on my ad-hoc list.
What would happen if I “forgot” to address all my concerns? I could for example choose a bicycle that works “out of the box” - whatever that means, unpack it, and find that it’s a state-of-the-art bmx stunt bike. Hmm… not too useful for weekend trips.
I would prefer to hike rather than take a state-of-the-art stunt bmx for a longer trip. But that has nothing to do with The Bicycle® vs. humble feet issue. It’s just a wrong bike for the purpose.
