I suspect we'd disagree on the details#

Sun Aug 24 23:48:00 2003

I suspect we'd disagree on the details. In fact, we'd disagree on quite a lot of the general approach, never mind the specific details, if only because I'm quite attached to CL and have already invested significant time in it (the reader may harbour his own opinion on the direction of any possible causal relation there). But in general terms I really do think Tom Lord is onto something with his thoughts on free software architecture

For a long time, the right strategy for GNU was to build a basic unix
replacement differentiated primarily by licensing.   As software goes, 
the core of unix is a simple architecture, reflecting its history as a
design first realized by a very small team of people.

Well, that part's done and the strategy won.

Nowadays, the proprietary competition is about databases, and
productivity apps, and browsers, and middleware layers.  The software
we're competing against is not like unix: it isn't simple; it wasn't
built by a small number number of people; it's a moving target.  It
isn't a tractable project to clone this proprietary software under
different licensing.

If the goal is still "(a) build a free alternative to proprietary
software", then a new strategy is called for:  competition on
_software_architecture_, not just licensing.