From the latest Coding Horror linkbait on open-source software that has all sorts of panties in a knot:

Unfortunately “real programmers” are Martians on a totally different plane of existence from “real people”, for which usable GUIs are made. We are on the business of helping humans, not Martians, so you “real programmers” can go ahead and marry your console apps for all we care.

Hahahahahaha. That’s user Jon Limjap, if you’re following along at home.

Great comments about the recent Jaron Lanier “open-source stifles creativity” article over at Geoff Arnold’s blog.

I think commenter “The Barefoot Bum” gets it wrong, or rather misses the point, when he writes:

I think Lanier is perpetuating a category error when he relates the open- and closed-source paradigms to the generation of creativity. Both are techniques, rather, for turning creativity into value.

The reason I think this misses the point is that Bum is confusing the technique or practices of open-source software development with the ethos or norms of the open-source “movement”. I think Lanier is saying that OSS’s ethos implicitly encourages “me-too” efforts, as opposed to original, creative work. That assertion is what really sticks in the craw of the OSS crowd.

Geoff hits home with this remark:

[T]he prevailing cult of OSS is so dominant that even the most obviously proprietary projects have to pretend to be open source.

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