this post was submitted on 31 May 2024
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[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Now the vast majority of phones run open source Android.

to be fair, this was almost certainly a reaction to the iphone. Still open, so there's that.

Seems like the cycle is either:

  • someone has a good idea, it's open source.
  • someone has a good idea, it's closed source, someone else makes something similar, but open source.
[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yep. It often takes quite awhile. And I honestly don't mind supporting innovators who want to sell something closed but really good.

But as I get older, and watch the pattern over and over, I'm starting to appreciate skipping the cycle by directly adopting the open thing as early as I can.

[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

yeah, the general rule of thumb seems to be that if it's universal, it needs to be open. The farther niche it goes, the less open it has to be, on principle of utility. Open standards are only good people it's so easy for them to get accepted. That's why closed standards often just don't go very far.

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The farther niche it goes, the less open it has to be, on principle of utility.

That's a great point! I kind of skipped over, that. Good add, thanks.

it's a rather weird concept, but it makes sense. If you want to standardize, let's say, threaded hardware across the continental US that you would inherently need to do away with any closed standards, assuming you want it to actually work, and along with that, whatever you settle on, needs to be open.

You could theoretically do this with closed source, but the problem here is that there will be someone that comes along and does it with open source, and if it's better, you're fucked. And if it's equal, and cheaper, you're fucked. And if it's marginally worse, but trivial to adopt, you're fucked.