On Mar 23, 2009, at 8:02 PM, Jeff Law wrote:
Chris Lattner wrote:
These companies really don't care about FOSS in the same way GCC
developers do. I'd be highly confident that this would still be
a serious issue for the majority of the companies I've interacted
with through the years.
Hi Jeff,
Can you please explain the differences you see between how GCC
developers and other people think about FOSS? I'm curious about
your perception here, and what basis it is grounded on.
I'd divide customers into two broad camps. Both camps are extremely
pragmatic, but they're focused on two totally different goals.
Thanks Jeff, I completely agree with you. Those camps are very common
in my experience as well. Do you consider GCC developers to fall into
one of these two categories, or do you see them as having a third
perspective? I know that many people have their own motivations and
personal agenda (and it is hard to generalize) but I'm curious what
you meant above.
Thanks!
-Chris
The first camp sees FOSS toolkits as a means to help them sell more
widgets, typically processors & embedded development kits. Their
belief is that a FOSS toolkit helps build a developer eco-system
around their widget, which in turn spurs development of consumable
devices which drive processor & embedded kit sales. The key for
these guys is free, as in beer, widely available tools. The fact
that the compiler & assorted utilities are open-source is largely
irrelevant.
The second broad camp I run into regularly are software developers
themselves building applications, most often for internal use, but
occasionally they're building software that is then licensed to
their customers. They'd probably describe the compiler & associated
utilities as a set of hammers, screwdrivers and the like -- they're
just as happy using GCC as any other compiler so long as it works.
The fact that the GNU tools are open source is completely irrelevant
to these guys. They want to see standards compliance, abi
interoperability, and interoperability with other tools (such as
debuggers, profilers, guis, etc). They're more than willing to swap
out one set of tools for another if it gives them some advantage.
Note that an advantage isn't necessarily compile-time or runtime
performance -- it might be ease of use, which they believe allows
their junior level engineers to be more effective (this has come up
consistently over the last few years).
Note that in neither case do they really care about the open-source
aspects of their toolchain (or for the most part the OS either).
They may (and often do) like the commoditization of software that
FOSS tends to drive, but don't mistake that for caring about the
open source ideals -- it's merely cost-cutting.
While I often encounter individual engineers or managers within
these organizations who care about the FOSS ideals and have helped
drive FOSS into those organizations; it's usually not pervasive in
those organizations, even those who have had good success with FOSS
platforms.
I don't know if that answers your question or not.
Jeff
