Ah! The virtues of infinite monkeys!

Introduction

A while ago, I looked back at the time I used a Windows operating system. Yes, I before I switched over to Ubuntu GNU/Linux, I've done my time in the underworld. And I can honestly say that I never regretted switching over. In this article I will type out the wonderful advantages of using a Linux/BSD based operating system over using a blue monstrosity from a red place (yeah, I thought up that pun, kudo's if you get it). I already have convinced handful of people to switch over, and now it's time to join this silently present background humming on the intertubes. It is there and it is growing stronger by the minute. Everywhere in the world, penguin-lovers are lining up. Can you hear it? I can.

Two's better than one...

... and infinite is even better! Have you ever heard of the infinite monkey theorem? Because it's applicable to this argument too. As Eric S. Raymond pointed out, it is more favorable to let everybody who is interested have insight in the source than having just a handful of people reviewing code. Because if enough people use and review (bad) source code, the probability of someone improving that code approaches one. Needless to say, keeping software proprietary will significantly reduce that chance. Now imagine an infinite number of programmer-monkeys using and reviewing the source of that one quiz-program you wrote for your little sister. The improvements could be exponential.

Why pay for thoughts?

The following is not only debated in open-source communities, but also on the many blogs featured around online piracy. Why should I pay for a product that can be made with such quickness and ease, and distrubuted on materials that are as cheap as they can get? Seriously, what is the price of a gigabyte these days? Ample money can be earned through selling stuff that actually costs the producer to produce, such as professional support for software or concerts/merchandise for music, thus keeping the economy healthy and everybody happy. But rejoice!Our society is slowly setting course to this improvement. Not only are hopes high on the pearls of open-source, such as Ubuntu and Firefox, but artists such as Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead are exploring new strategies. Even the baby steps on the terrain of movies are taken, and more is to come.

Order through chaos

If you would bother to have a look at all the standards that have been developed by the open-source community, an outsider could easily say these will never be followed. But he would be mistaken, because they are. Except for the configuration directory, most of them are actually widely implemented. And looking at the two main graphical toolkits, applications actually can only have to distinctive looks. Which is good actually: It leaves choice for the programmer to choose the library they know best, and in the meantime the user will still recognize a checkbox anywhere on the system, because it looks the same anywhere. So it's actually really practical, and as a fun bonus, the autist in me gets order through (pleasant) chaos.

Chaos through void

When was the last time you've seen an authentic microsoft-fanboy? Looking back at the state of Windows-systems at the time I switched over and Windows-systems now, I see nothing but more eyecandy. And no change means degression to me. Even the overload of eyecandy on every Windows-version since the one with that astronaut as choosable avatar couldn't stop the bulk of software developers from writing skin engines for their programs. WinAmp, Shareaza, even the newest version of this office program - so inferior to OpenOffice I fail to recall it's name - does it. This was actually what I found the most annoying about Windows. Every application that had only the tiniest bit of popularity had the desire to break from the pack by including a skin that didn't really add to the functionality of the program at all. Really, why bother trying to make something fancy that does not need to look fancy? And what's the point of having one-hundred-and-one sound/graphics/teamaking libraries in different folders in your "Program Files", instead of having one that is best and does all the work, at a central location?

Epilogue

Over the years, open-source has proved to be superior in not only software, but also music and motion pictures, heck, even beer. I have absolutely no doubt that this strong community will continue to do so. We aren't revolutionaires, we are neither communists nor capitalists, we are only categorizable as a group of people that saw something and said: Hey, this could be better. Mind if I lend a hand? High hopes are on open standards and projects venturing outside the fixed world of software development. Eventually, and I though I may not even experience it, my hopes are high, this will have a positive impact on society. And darn, would I be proud to say to my children one day: See that program over there? Well, your old man contributed to it, by advocating open distribution as we know it now. And boy, would I be proud.

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