[Info-vax] Open source usage, Was Python and various libraries updated

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 8/10/2020 4:20 PM, gérard Calliet wrote:
> My critic however is not about priorities, but about what I understand 
> as wrong practics.
> 
> VSI uses Open Sources a way which seems purely usefully. This way is in 
> contradiction with the major way Open Source is used, and it is not a 
> good point for VSI and us, and in general in contradiction with what can 
> be the motivations of computer scientists.
> 
> Internet succeeded because a lot of reasons. One of them is it joined 
> with essential motivations of thousands of computer scientists, the 
> scientists who created the Open Source standards.
> 
> I'm sure the motivation of an IBM computer scientist or a Linux one, or 
> a Apple one or a Digital one are very different. But all of them go on 
> with their job when they feel they are doing "the right thing". It is 
> very important to respect these motivations, and with the success of 
> Internet, Linux proves it is not a naïve thinking to say that.
> 
> It will be a very difficult thing, in the long term, to rebuild the VMS 
> culture. Because the motivation is a lot more complex than that of the 
> others: our blue cousins have a religion of the "service to the 
> enterprise", our Unix cousins are idealists, our Aple cousins are 
> worshiper of toys. Who are we? Just the gurus of the gurus, the best of 
> the bests? The way we'll rebuild our ecosystem, the way we'll interface 
> it with the others will determine our new identity. My opinion is our 
> value is something like "making things work". They said Digital is an 
> ingineer world. So, for everything, understanding how it works.
> 
> We have to understand how the open source ecosystem works.

I am not sure what is your point.

VSI use open source in their new offerings.

VSI's active contribution to open source is probably limited.

But VSI is not a company like IBM, HPE, Intel, MS, Apple, Google etc..
Or like Digital 30 years ago.

They are a relative small company with some very big tasks
for their core commercial offerings.

I don't think they have the resources to become a contributor like
the other companies mentioned.

So I can't blame them.

To me the biggest problem with VMS and open source is not VSI
but the community.

There are way too few that are willing to spend time
on VMS open source.

Arne