> It would be interesting to note the effect of Netscape using gpl on other
> vendors. It's the first important commercial vendor using it for a product
> that really matters.
The real question, of course, is whether Netscape can come up with a
charismatic central developer to guide the group code effort and maintain
coherence -- another Linus Torvalds with a central vision for the codebase
and the ability to mediate between competing design strategies.
See the famous 'Cathedral and Bazaar' paper by Eric Raymond at
http://locke.ccil.org/~esr/writings/cathedral.html
Especially the 'Necessary preconditions' section. ;-)
In my optimistic view, I can see Navigator being an excellent platform for
every research institution's internet technology group, and a code base
where the very latest in web tools are crafted. In the worst case, the
navigator developers could alienate their community and navigator could
cease to be any sort of standard on the net.
But this is off-topic, except as a brief praise of the work Linus and the
core developers have done in shepherding Linux from Minix to the present.
--Scott
@ @
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-oOO-(_)-OOo-=-=-=-=-=
C. Scott Ananian: cananian@lcs.mit.edu / Declare the Truth boldly and
Laboratory for Computer Science/Crypto / without hindrance.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology /META-PARRESIAS AKOLUTOS:Acts 28:31
-.-. .-.. .. ..-. ..-. --- .-. -.. ... -.-. --- - - .- -. .- -. .. .- -.
PGP key available via finger and from http://www.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/~cananian