Sun "Invented" Open Source?

[techieMoe]

McNealy: "We Invented Open Source, Gang" @ LINUX

What do you all think of this? To me, it just sounds like one man's blustering when confronted with an unfriendly press. Who do you think "invented" open source, or is it something that even could be "invented" in the first place? Has it always been around? Discuss.

Full disclosure: I write software in Sun's Java language for a living, but all our servers, development software and workstations are IBM or Dell.

[carlosponti]

invented open source is a bit of a stretch. not always been friendly with open source but atleast better than microsoft. I generally Like sun and think they have put out some great technologies. Java has been one of them. I think the concept of open source has always been around just not popularized till gnu and linux or mainstreamed for that matter either.

[Dapper Dan]

Huh? I thought Al Gore invented open source...

[elija]

Didn't Al Gore invent the internet?

[carlosponti]

I thought it was the automobile or was it the airplane?

[Dapper Dan]

Did Open Source as we know it start when Stallman first got in touch with Torvalds? I've never seen Revolution OS. Have any of you?

[techieMoe]

Did Open Source as we know it start when Stallman first got in touch with Torvalds? I've never seen Revolution OS. Have any of you?

I have. Something I found that was interesting is that in the early days of computing the source code was almost always included with software. That's one of the things that got Stallman, et al in trouble in the 1970s when companies started closing it up. I guess since the idea of "closed-source" software had just been invented, at the same time the concept of "open-source" software came into being.

[fingal]

At the risk of sounding overly esoteric, 'open source' is just a phrase for something that's been around for generations. I'm - at least partly - a librarian. The idea of 'information sharing' (sorry... it's a 'buzz phrase') has been around for ages. You borrow books from the library, you take ideas away with you... Then you've learned something.

Open source software is different in a lot of ways because you use it on a computer; but if you want to go beyond that and consider what actually underpins all that, think about your DNA.

Your parents 'got together' (this thread is so-ooo educational!) and conceived you. They didn't argue about copyright, wrangle over which version of the GPL is 'the best' or worry about their hardware. Well okay... they did.

My point is that no corporation or individual invented 'open source'. It was there all along waiting to be discovered. What do you think?

[techieMoe]

I'm - at least partly - a librarian.

Umm.. So how does that work? Your mother was a librarian and your father was a Scot, so you're one half librarian?

[fingal]

Umm.. So how does that work? Your mother was a librarian and your father was a Scot, so you're one half librarian?

He he... You're closer to the truth than you think. The job description has become very blurred because I gained a degree in librarianship - combined with publishing. The publishing bit means I've ended up working in social housing, administering a Lotus Notes based website, while setting up a small 'hard copy' library. Life is strange...

Our C.E. summed it up recently during our staff conference by saying: 'This is John. He used to be a librarian.' It's confusing, but he's very astute and... he really is Scottish. If my father had been born a few miles further North then I would have been half Scottish myself...

In short, I provide people with information for a living.