(no subject)

[eirias]

So I've been having trouble with EEGLab for the last n months -- it's a free, open-source program for analyzing EEG data, and it's looking to me like a clear case of getting what you pay for, both in terms of function and support. Anyway, yesterday I got a form-email from the guy in charge of the dev team (open-source, and it still has a dev team?) asking if I'd write a letter of support to NIH on their behalf, attesting to the great use my lab has gotten out of the program. I'm sorely tempted to write him back and say, hey, I'd be happy to do this for you, but I can't get the software to work, I can't send a message to the listserv about it, and I can't even wrangle a response from the listserv admin about *that* -- howzabout you giving a shot at one of my problems before I help you with yours?

Comments

[upsilon.livejournal.com]

open-source, and it still has a dev team?

Open source doesn't mean it's a chaotic free-for-all. I mean, it certainly *can* be, but it usually isn't. Usually it's an organized group of developers who want to do something meaningful, or useful, or just plain fun in their spare time. Projects that are just thrown together by anybody with 10 minutes to spare are ultimately likely not to go very far. It turns into a mess of spaghetti code that nobody can figure out.

Instead, open-source efforts pull together dev teams just like you might find in a company. There's still somebody in charge (usually in an administrative fashion, not in a dictatorship fashion), since decisions still have to be made...

Consider the Linux operating system, and more specifically the kernel (the bit deep down that controls and runs everything else). Linus Torvalds for years exercized complete control over the kernel. You could write a module or addition for it, but if he didn't like it, it didn't go in.

Of course, you're still free to write such things. That's what open source is -- the right and the ability to freely modify the source code to the program. But your modifications don't have to be accepted as part of the official distribution.