[updates, last 000409.0746]
I see graydon wants
more internal hyperlinks as well. But the Powers that Be
aren't so happy about the idea. Let's see if you can use
labels [1].
Software Genes
I really like aoliva's
comparison
of software systems and biological systems.
Open Systems and Open Source software are the software
equivalent of sexual reproduction. The promote the growth,
adaption, and speciation of implementations, interfaces, and
protocols... read my followup to aoliva's article for more
on that aspect.
Since I posted that I've been thinking
about
one
particular
example, and how it fits into the whole idea...
Software systems thrive if they can use
the
work
of
lots
of
people to drive them. Even relatively closed systems like Microsoft Windows benefit
from this, though they don't develop nearly as fast if you
can't get into them one way or another... and they tend to
concentrate their development in the one niche the designer
planned for them.
Palm has the
same
problem,
to some extent... they see the Palm as a "personal
organizer" rather than as a full fledged information
appliance... a pocket computer. This model has plusses and
minuses, but at least they've been willing to open the OS up
somewhat by letting third parties TRG and Handspring do their own
versions. The Palm OS is also sufficiently simple and static
that OSK Inc. has done
their own hosted implementation... and of course there's the
incompatible clones by Royal, Oregon
Scientific, and Microsoft...
Each of these last systems are examples of
the
conflict
between sexual and asexual reproduction. Palm seems
ambivalent about this whole sex thing... after all it can be
awfully unpleasant if you're in a bad relationship (sex was
never designed to be for the individual's benefit, it's the
species
that wins big in the sex game)... and it's picky about its
partners.
It's happy to open up to the company run by
its
former
guiding light (Jeff Hawkins at Handspring), and it's had a
long relationship with TRG... but it slapped Royal down
pretty hard, Oregon Scientific seems to be in a slow slide
to obscurity (their units are now being distributed with
heavy discounts through surplus houses... hardly a good
sign), and of course Microsoft is now in their third cycle
of trying to emulate the Palm.
It'll be interesting to see how this plays
out.
Will
Palm be
like Bell Labs, and
open up all the way, or will it be like
Apple and drift back to
asexual celibacy... or stick to
their almost-respectable semi-monogamy with TRG and
Handspring for a while longer?
Microsoft is an interesting case, too. They
give
the
appearance of openness... at least, you can buy a
Microsoft-compatable PC or handheld from any number of
vendors... but they're just a tease. What you're really
buying is a Microsoft-specced PC: Compaq and Dell and Gateway are more or less
constrained by Microsoft's
designs... they hang like hopeful suitors picking up a dance
here or there but if they actually exchange genes it's
pretty much a one-way transaction... just enough sharing to
keep them happy, but as soon as they look like they're able
to become serious partners in the trading game... like when
Compaq acquired Digital [2]...
they get slapped
down. "NT on the Alpha? Well, so long as you don't mind
doing all the work and slip me a few patents and
technologies on the side".
I think Palm wants to be Microsoft, but they
don't
have
the
room to maneuver. If they change the OS too rapidly, it'll
alienate their existing user base who haven't been trained
to buy a new OS every couple of years. If they don't change
it rapidly enough, it'll get cloned out from under their
control by people like OSK Inc.
And unlike Microsoft they're competing with
their
own
licensees. They could hit the emergency brake like Apple did
when they pulled the
plug on UMAX
and Power
Computing, but I'm pretty sure
Hawkins has an exit strategy... and the experience to pull
it off... if Power Computing had Jef Raskin and Steve
Wozniak on the payroll they'd still be in business today.
Sex is complex, disturbing, exciting, and
scary...
whether
the negotiations are played out in a singles bar or over
faxes and email in corporate boardrooms. But without it you
can't adapt to new
circumstances and spread to new niches. That's why Microsoft
doesn't dominate... well, not quite everywhere yet.
[updates]
Let's see if putting the updates at the end with a link
at the beginning is less distracting.
bma
wants to be able to comment on diary entries too, like
this.
You can add comments to diary entries
through CritLink,
the only problem is that you don't seem to be able to edit
or add things when you're looking at Advogato through
CritLink. You can also link to specific diary entries... the
first (earliest) entry has a label of "0", and they
increment... this is particularly convenient because
CritLink allows you to add comments directly and easily to
labels... like
this one...
It eould be really nice if CritLink supported editing
notes. There's some horrid typos in those last two!
----------
[1] Yep, you
can!
[2] Looks like
Compaq's finally
assimilated
digital.com. Damn.