The Achilles Heel of Open Source: Elitism

According to this article, the biggest threat to an open source project's goals is elitism.

By default, Elitism is exclusionary and ignores shared responsibility in the decision making process for a given project or organization. Elitism promotes social stratification and division and gives those few decision makers a sense of privileged special status. The risks inherent in working for an organization or for a project which is controlled by Elitism is that morale will suffer as team members discover their input on decisions doesn't matter.

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Elitism is one of the biggest problems in society, period. For some reason there are people that think they know what is best for everybody else.

Peasants!! ....

KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!!

Greed and Money = Elitism

Console vs PC loyalists = Elitism

Republicans vs Democrats = Elitism

My personal view on Brown recluse spiders = Elitism

Lakers and Cowboy fans = Elitism

Star Wars vs Lord of The Rings nerds = Elitism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxAEo3CWeq8

take your pic fellas...

well of course you closed source, pay for use, sheeple would say that, us pure open source'ers know best!

[color=2222]I'm not an open source user.... Most of the time....[/color]

xX_Jack_Carver_Xx said:

Peasants!! ....

KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!!

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So glad you brought up Zod because this is what the top comment was in a Zod reddit thread, and believe me, I would of reacted the exact same way as this guy.

I actually met the original General Zod, Terrance Stamp. He married a class mate of mine.

The entire time we were having coffee I kept thinking "don't be that guy, don't be that guy". He was actually a really lovely individual and I managed to not be a fanboy, so we had a great time together. But as we left I thought to myself: "Toby, you're only granted a few opportunities like this, go for it".

So as we were shaking hands goodbye I said "Terrance, the first movie I ever saw in theaters was Superman II, could you do me a great favour and say 'Kneel before Zod!'"?

He laughed and said, (Terrance Stamp voice) "You know my dear, I've been asked that a lot. But actually it's not my favorite line from the movie, my favorite line from the movie is when I rip the top off the White House and the president says 'Oh god'. To which I reply (Zod voice, points his finger in my face) "No.....Zod!".

I immediately start jumping up and down screaming "That's the coolest thing that ever happened to me dude!" Much to the chagrin of his wife, my wife and the rest of the restaurant.

http://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1detmd/zodds_helmet_from_man_of_steel/

Article ostensibly about elitism in open source turns out to be a thinly-veiled elitist hit-piece against Mark Shuttleworth of Ubuntu.

Points for irony. Points lost for repetitive improper title-casing of "Elitism". More points lost for trying to redefine top-down management as "elitism" for the sake of faux-populist propaganda.

Total score: Negative two billion. Honor dictates that you must shave off your neckbeard in shame.

XenIneX said:

Article ostensibly about elitism in open source turns out to be a thinly-veiled elitist hit-piece against Mark Shuttleworth of Ubuntu.

Points for irony. Points lost for repetitive improper title-casing of "Elitism". More points lost for trying to redefine top-down management as "elitism" for the sake of faux-populist propaganda.

Total score: Negative two billion. Honor dictates that you must shave off your neckbeard in shame.

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Haha, Amen.

I'd agree with the comments above - obviously someone doesn't like Mark.

However, Unity does in fact blow, and I've moved to Xubuntu until someone comes to their senses.

This is why I don't open source my own code.

Because I'm humble

elitism is just one possible view (narrow that it might be)

What were talking about is the difference between someones passions vs. the dollar signs in the eyes of someone else. People will "buy" software. I personally don't understand why "free" has become such a bad thing. You will always have specialized software but open source represents the passions and the dreams of people that actually "want" to create and learn and share with whoever might benefit. I have no problem with the idea that many people need/want/desire financial compensation for their hard work. What I do have a problem with is the idea that....this program is better than that program....based souly on the idea that this program has a price tag. What I have a problem with is the lies associated with a certain kind of thinking.

Elitism is something you will find anywhere your looking for it. It's a word that applies to free AND paid for software. It applies to almost any job (the boss's boss) you will ever have.

A few individuals on this forum end up thumbing their noses at me when all I'm doing is presenting a slightly different point of view. Is that elitism? maybe. I am here and I do have experience working the code, the technology, the computers, the networks, and the customers. I'm not always right but I do have something to contribute. I do this because "I want to". Not because I'm paid to. Open source isn't really any different. I'll admit that things have become a bit commercialized. Perhaps that's to be expected. But it should NEVER be forgotten that our technology exists because of what people from all walks of life have felt in the hearts driven by dreams and fueled by passion. There actually was a time before the world knew anything about Apple or Microsoft.

World altering technology comes from the heart and mind of motivated individuals. This is what made Steve Jobs such an incredible man. But, it's also what made the names of Tesla, Faraday, and many others so historic. Even when it's just one person against the world. Just ONE man can make a difference.

It's not about the money, or the glory, or the power. It's about doing what you love. It's about following your dreams. You do THAT...and all the rest will come to you.

That's what you get when you try to develop software by mob rule. It's exactly because of all the egos involved in open-source with nothing to reign them in that the world still has the likes of Microsoft and Apple as platform standard bearers.

If you don't get it, maybe you should RTFM instead of complaining about people that did as being elitists.

So that was really just a shot at Shuttleworth and Ubuntu. No mention about how some open source fans are true elitist pricks.

Any Linux distro has it's fair share of elitist followers (as does OS X and Windows). Go check out the Gentoo forums or Arch forums for perfect examples. People asking simple questions get 10 replies of "noob it's in the wiki". Instead of "here's the link to the wiki article you need to solve the problem. You should always check the wiki first as your answer is probably there".

You can't blame Ubuntu. You can't blame open source. Hell you can't even blame Linux. You can blame Linus though, I mean who else has the balls to flip the bird say "Fuck you Nvidia".

If you don't like something, make your own fork. What's the big deal? Awww, no one else agrees with you, and you can't program as well as those making the decisions? Then I'm sorry son, your only recourse is to call them elitists and pout in the corner.

Most FLOSS software (other than the biggest projects like the Linux kernel) is generally created by people in their spare time. They are not running a business and you are not their customer. Far too many people go in as if they were a customer, demanding support and then, when they don't get support in what they consider to be a timely manner, they start denigrating the programmers who have worked in their spare time to create these programs (a lot of which are labors of love).

There are plenty of organizations that will provide you professional, paid support, for many FLOSS programs. If you want guaranteed answers and response times, go buy a support package from one them. Or go buy Red Hat Enterprise or SuSe Enterprise. But don't come into the forums or the mailing lists of a FLOSS product with an entitled attitude and start demanding support because you won't get anywhere.

Vermillion said:

So that was really just a shot at Shuttleworth and Ubuntu. No mention about how some open source fans are true elitist pricks.

Any Linux distro has it's fair share of elitist followers (as does OS X and Windows). Go check out the Gentoo forums or Arch forums for perfect examples. People asking simple questions get 10 replies of "noob it's in the wiki". Instead of "here's the link to the wiki article you need to solve the problem. You should always check the wiki first as your answer is probably there".

You can't blame Ubuntu. You can't blame open source. Hell you can't even blame Linux. You can blame Linus though, I mean who else has the balls to flip the bird say "Fuck you Nvidia".

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Arch is designed for experienced GNU/Linux users. At no point has it ever been marketed as anything but. So when a user comes in and complains that they have to use the command line, they will not get a warm reception. And yes, people get tired of answering the same questions over and over. Arch has some of the best documentation of any GNU/Linux distribution and it is irritating when someone can't be bothered to take 5 minutes to do a search and yet expects the community to do it for them.

^ Well said...

But seriously, if anyone picked up any distro of linux and complained about having to use the CLI, they should be shot in the face with a bag of rabid badgers covered in fire ants.

So here's the lesson. If you didn't pay for it you've got no right to make demands on anybody. That makes perfect sense to anyone with any degree of reason. In the same vein, however, don't expect the world to treat your efforts with legitimacy as you pursue your programming "hobby"

The sword cuts both ways, like it or not.

That my friends is where people start throwing around the "elitist" term.