KDE, Gnome and "Public Infrastructure"

[nf2]

On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 4:05 PM, Thiago Macieira <thiago at kde.org> wrote:
>
> As for your argument on "living on the same apartment", I disagree a bit. I
> think we're still at the "same building" stage, where we share our piping,
> heating, electricity, we cooperate in the building council, but we haven't yet
> moved into the same unit.

I'm afraid you are condemned to live in the same unit. At least if you
want more applications to move in. :-)

>
> Another way to see it is from the "Innovator's Solution" book. The author
> expresses a theory in which companies and entities go through cycles of
> interdependency and modularity. I think that applies to us: we're still in the
> state of interdependency, where the product is "not good enough" yet and we
> need a high level of flexibility and the ability to make non-standard
> interfaces, in order to stay competitive.
>

KDE and GNOME are definitely acting like companies, there are a lot of
competitive feelings involved. The problem is, that you are not only
trying to build different cars, but also your own roads. This won't
turn out well.

"[...] uncoordinated markets driven by parties working in their own
self interest are unable to provide these goods in desired
quantities." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good)

Norbert