Nonsense. I am an open source fan, but I also call it like it is. There are plenty of domains where closed source is still state of the art and open source options are at best inferior, sometimes laughably so. For example
CAD/CAM
Hardware design: simulation, formal verification, etc.
Video editing (Blender’s video sequence editor is so close to being good, but still has basic bugs unfortunately - hopefully in a few years I can take this off the list)
Audio production, like Fruity Loops.
Office software. Sorry but OpenOffice is still not a patch on MS Office. Last time I tried to use it for a presentation it literally reordered my bullet points. Absolutely bizarre bug.
And there’s a whole host of highly domain specific software that open source will never replace because it’s too niche, e.g. Simulink. I once worked on commercial software that solved for elastic wave modes in pipes. Good luck finding open source software to do that.
I actually think AI development is going to close a lot of these gaps faster than people think.
And I think the options for audio and office are pretty decent, LibreOffice definitely does all that I need and there’s a healthy community of musicians and audio enthusiasts building things in Linux.
Hardware design and CAD have the additional blockers that they require physical manufacturing and open source hardware has a long, long ways to go. Without an ability to actually produce the physical goods, open source software doesn’t go anywhere. Kind of a bootstrapping problem.
Eventually. It’s a long slow arc. But there’s definitely a history of it. From its Inception the modern smartphone has been built almost exclusively on top of Linux or BSD. Even if proprietary presentation layers above it don’t always make it perfectly clear. Similar can be said for any modern gaming console or hand held. With the exception of Microsoft’s products.
Most of the modern internet, your home consumer router and maybe even some of your appliances. Built on open source code. And finally, many are switching to own their PC again. There isn’t a lot of hype or fan fair publicly. But open source has been quietly putting in the work and showing up for decades.
Realistically, we’re actually just returning to a pre Microsoft state. Granted before the explosion of the personal computer most computers were massive devices an individual couldn’t own. And there wasn’t a lot of money to be made in selling the software itself. So there was a lot of collaboration and sharing. Even if proprietary layers were built on top. The base was vital. We’re finally getting back there.
Open source always win.
Nonsense. I am an open source fan, but I also call it like it is. There are plenty of domains where closed source is still state of the art and open source options are at best inferior, sometimes laughably so. For example
And there’s a whole host of highly domain specific software that open source will never replace because it’s too niche, e.g. Simulink. I once worked on commercial software that solved for elastic wave modes in pipes. Good luck finding open source software to do that.
people use fruity loops after mid 90s kid highschool era?
I actually think AI development is going to close a lot of these gaps faster than people think.
And I think the options for audio and office are pretty decent, LibreOffice definitely does all that I need and there’s a healthy community of musicians and audio enthusiasts building things in Linux.
Hardware design and CAD have the additional blockers that they require physical manufacturing and open source hardware has a long, long ways to go. Without an ability to actually produce the physical goods, open source software doesn’t go anywhere. Kind of a bootstrapping problem.
Eventually. It’s a long slow arc. But there’s definitely a history of it. From its Inception the modern smartphone has been built almost exclusively on top of Linux or BSD. Even if proprietary presentation layers above it don’t always make it perfectly clear. Similar can be said for any modern gaming console or hand held. With the exception of Microsoft’s products.
Most of the modern internet, your home consumer router and maybe even some of your appliances. Built on open source code. And finally, many are switching to own their PC again. There isn’t a lot of hype or fan fair publicly. But open source has been quietly putting in the work and showing up for decades.
Realistically, we’re actually just returning to a pre Microsoft state. Granted before the explosion of the personal computer most computers were massive devices an individual couldn’t own. And there wasn’t a lot of money to be made in selling the software itself. So there was a lot of collaboration and sharing. Even if proprietary layers were built on top. The base was vital. We’re finally getting back there.