Why the Bile is a great Blog

The Bile Blog is great. As long as you get past the language....or you're like me and finds the language part of the fun.

Sometimes it's not quite there, but the latest post hits the nail on the head about some of the Open Source initiatives. In fact it reminded me of a post I made just over a year ago which touched on similar topics.

The problem with the Java community is that they have a hard time getting over themselves. They're out of touch with reality in many cases. Sure there's been quite a few open source projects that have taken off, but these projects can mostly be categorized into two areas:

• Projects that have the backing of a large company or (even better) consortiom of companies. Prime examples, Eclipse, Netbeans, JBoss.
  
• Projects that were initiated by consultant(s). These are usually fairly good, and I prefer a consultant who has written/contributes to a project like this. Why? Because they have a vested interest in seeing the project succeed. As well, they aren't selling you a proprietary bag of goods (I've been on that side before...bleah). You're buying expertise. Good examples: Tapestry, JUnit.

Sure there are other projects out there that have been successful...but anymore the best OS projects are backed by someone who thinks they can make money with it. It's not about a hippie love fest anymore, which is why great ideas (like Scarab) seem to be half dead on a vine out there while others flourish.