<snip religious stuff> Chazal said: "Kin'at Sofrim Tarbe Hochma". </snip>
What I really miss in Open Source? What does it lack? Open Source offers almost everything we need. Actually, much more than we need: - You need a text editor? - No problem; We have emacs for you, we have vi, etc. Just take one. - You need a desktop management environment? - No problem; We have KDE, GNOME, etc. - Need a distro? - RedHat, Mandrake, Debian, SuSE, etc. - A database? - MySQL, PostgreSQL, SAP, Interbase, etc. The real thing that is missing, is the opposite one. We have a problem of rich men: too many choices. How should I choose my choices? Should I try all the options and then decide? It's impossible! Should I see what the authors have to say about their own package? They are not objective! For example, I spent this week trying to choose my future CGI C library. This decision is "strategic", and I'm not going to migrate from one library to another in the future, so I must choose right. Now, there are at least 10 different Open Source libraries, ranging from GCGI, LibCGI, CGIC, HostCGI, to ECGI, TCGI, libapreq, etc. What should I do ???? I also had to choose a C toolkit for indexed records file. There were NDBM, GDBM, SDBM and Berkeley (finally I chose APR-UTIL abstract library which is built on top of those 4...). Sometimes, there is no "best" choice vs. "worst" choice, but a choice for specific cases, vs. a choice for other specific cases. For example, some people claim that if you need transactions, then PostgreSQL is better for you, while if you don't need them, MySQL is better (I don't claim it, but only give (possibly wrong) example). There are about hundred (100) areas where competing Open Source packages compete with each other, and in each of these areas there are 2, 3, 4 and sometime even 7-10 competing packages. There is even no problem to find all these packages: freshmeat.net does a great job. SourceForge may help too, as well as Google and others. The real need is an objective site that will scan an area by area, and in each area will compare the different choices. Readers will be able to note (like in Slashdot). Maybe even with notes rating like Slashdot (and maybe even using Slashdot's engine, which is Open Source too). This site may be called "ReligiousWars.something", and will enjoy a high rating from its first day (because people CARE about religious wars). So contrary to typical Dot.Com initiatives, this one has great chances to succeed. Somebody to "take the glove"? I give up any royalties or options (except for $.02)... -- Eli Marmor [EMAIL PROTECTED] CTO, Founder Netmask (El-Mar) Internet Technologies Ltd. __________________________________________________________ Tel.: +972-9-766-1020 8 Yad-Harutzim St. Fax.: +972-9-766-1314 P.O.B. 7004 Mobile: +972-50-23-7338 Kfar-Saba 44641, Israel ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
