[Wylug-discuss] Linux on the desktop (was [Wylug-help] Fw: Re: Installing a speedtouch modem)

[Matthew Palmer]

On Fri, 14 Nov 2003, Dave Fisher wrote:

> But why, oh why, can't open source developers get over their childish
> drive to re-invent every kind of wheel 'not invented here'?

Because, in a lot of cases, the stuff developed elsewhere just isn't
documented.  And since it's quicker to write code than to understand it,
it's easier just to rewrite it so you know what it's doing - even though,
deep down, you're just screwing it up for the next person (since obviously
you won't be documenting what you do, either).

Hence, twenty different ways of doing the same thing, all hopelessly
unusable for anyone else.

- Matt