Thursday, October 18, 2007

Planet Ben Collins-Sussman

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone link to these great recent blog posts by Ben Collins-Sussman of Subversion fame.

This discussion on why DVCS is currently too much to ask for 80% of programmers (not necessarily 80% of free software developers) was a great read, especially with the comments. I once moved a 30-person project from Visual SourceSafe to Subversion, and I had to face a political battle with process folks in addition to resistance from some 80%ers. Most 80%ers just didn't care, because all they ever needed/wanted to know was "svn up" and "svn commit" (in TortoiseSVN, of course).

And here's a really informative post on consuming meat responsibly, sustainably, and ethically. You don't have to read it if you're allergic to non-technical posts.

And just in case anybody hasn't seen it, here's a link to the fantastic "How Open Source Projects Survive Poisonous People (And You Can Too)" talk he did with Brian Fitzpatrick. I refer to this whenever I'm in doubt about how a maintainer should behave (since it's kind of new for me).

2 comments:

staciamikele said...

Hey Sandy,
My name is Stacia and I work with a mature start-up located in downtown San Diego, SMS.ac. We are working on some of the most innovative products on the market; including a web-based application platform. We use cutting-edge technologies including .NET 2.0 and AJAX coding primarily in C#.

We need to find a community of men and women whose biggest passion in life is coding and programming.

We are looking for entry level developers such as yourself or people you might know that are extremely smart and gifted. People you know that have a natural coding ability, and are looking for a professional environment that is both challenging and rewarding. We are talking about people who may not want to have ANYTHING to do with a “corporate” environment, but are still looking for opportunities to:

Work with cutting edge products
Receive a competitive compensation
Establish themselves in a gratifying work environment
And above all, do what they love: CODE

If you know of ANYONE or you yourself fit this description and are looking for an outlet to eat, breathe and live coding, please don't hesitate to send me a way to contact them. (Also referrals that are not already in our database or currently on the job boards that turn into hires for more than 30 days will be rewarded with a 1k referral bonus).


Thank you for your time,
Stacia Webb
swebb@corp.sms.ac

Anonymous said...

Thanks for pointing this stuff out! I have seen the video in the past put the 80% 20% post was a good read. I have run into the same types of push back at some places I have worked. Its a huge political battle. Luckily, my current employer (my manager/team lead) is actually a technical person first and a manager second and she is very open to using open source tools and such when it makes sense.

I agree with Ben, it has a lot to do with getting and keeping a solid grip on reality. There is no silver bullet, each tool has its pros and cons. And thats the whole point... open source... freedom of choice... use what you like and don't worry about it.