Comment on Matt Mullenweg deactivates WordPress contributor accounts over alleged fork plans
PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 1 week ago
I know of no faster way than the relegate your project to the dustbin of history.
It happened with X. XFree86 was the graphics system you used on Linux. One developer had constant friction with the core XFree86 people, but he was also a guy who kept coming up with good and innovative ideas and making them happen, and had a lot of respect from the wider community, and so for a long time there was this uneasy tension. Finally, things came to a head:
zdnet.com/…/dispute-divides-key-open-source-group…
I think it took about a week after that before Keith was leading a new core group of developers and sensible people, and everyone was simply totally ignoring XFree86. All the distributions switched to Keith’s fork, xorg, which they continued to use for about 15 years, until Wayland came along.
It stands alongside Larry McVoy telling the Linux developers they needed to jump through hoops to use his version control system, because they had no alternative, in the absolute hall of fame of completely unforced own-goals that changed the landscape of software in ways that are still felt today.
IllNess@infosec.pub 1 week ago
“Thank you, Larry McVoy” by Richard Stallman
PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 1 week ago
If I remember it right, he did a lot more than that. He tried to say that one particular kernel developer who he viewed as disobedient to him would be punished by no longer being allowed to use the software. When people pointed out that this behavior was insane and would cause significant disruption to the project, he didn’t care. Then, they made the absolutely predictable choice to abandon him. Then he took his ball and went home, after everyone had already moved to a nearby park and started a new game without him.
I might be misremembering, but that’s how I remember it happening. Instead of using git, we could all be using BitKeeper, and paying McVoy our $5/month or whatever for the privilege, because it was just as much better than everything else as git is now. But he didn’t want that, if it involved not having everything exactly the way he wanted it.