Reading 11: King of the Ball

One thing I found funny was the quote "I suspected that Orem - and even Salt Lake City - weren't quite representative of the rest of the country". I couldn't agree more after having lived there for over 23 years. It was interesting to me that Utah of all places was the first place he visited in the US. His description of the US definitely was accurate to my knowledge, and I think it helped his understanding of the market he was trying to sell to, and the people he would be working with/against. Linux as a whole was entirely new and unique for the time, and caught a metaphorical perfect wave in terms of project timing and execution. It was something that computer hobbyists, and computer-based businesses, could all talk about and have common ground for new discussion for the time. Every success story such as Linux always has facets of incredible luck, but that does not mean that it can't be done again. For a lot of innovations, whoever "got there first" usually matters a lot more than whoever does it best in terms of cultural legacy. Sometimes however, "getting there first" is loosely defined, where on occasion the first person that accomplishes something does it quietly or without mass appeal, and gets pushed under the rug. Linux did, in fact, 'get there first' when it came to an open source operating system in the second, 'technical' way. A Google search says that the A-2 system in 1953 was the first example of a free and open source software, and GNU obviously came before Linux in 1983. But Linux is what the common person remembers and knows about. They may not understand what open source really means, or what an operating system really is, but they know of Linux and, if they were old enough, remember its significant impact on the minds of computer-based businesses in the mid-late 90s. This is why I believe in the power of the bazaar, and why I think there will be another open source success story as big as Linux one day. An open-source AI LLM is one avenue that could ride the coattails of pop culture well enough to do so - just as an example. I would also argue that Wikipedia is another successful open source story that is larger than Linux, but I digress. It takes lightning in a bottle, special circumstances that are completely out of everyone's control. This includes cultural climate, politics, pop culture, technological innovations, etc. But, it is possible. If it can be done, I believe it can be done again, even without the 'get there first' mentality. And I believe that it has to be done by someone like Linus, someone that embraces community and actively encourages collaboration and contributions from other developers. People that get too sucked in to the top-down business CEO oriented architecture can never be truly open source. It brings too much anti-transparency and profit driven motivation for the perfect metaphorical wave to be ridden by the best metaphorical surfer. Open source is, as a developer, one of the nicest and most pleasant to interact with things in the coding space. I personally love game modding and other things like that, and it always is so interesting to see the development timelines of expansive and interacting mods all done with an open source infrastructure. Without it, these swathes of communities would cease to exist in the same capacity they do now. Open source is the lifeblood of nitty-gritty small coding communities. I think that it is just a matter of time before one of these small communities picks up steam and flourishes into the next 'big thing'.