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Look around at open source software, clang vs. gcc, gnome vs. kde vs. xfce, and many others. I see little evidence that open source leads to a reduction in dup

• tjr 15y ago
  Alternately, we as developers can use existing open source software with which to build new software, without having to rewrite things that are already completed and available.
• ajross 15y ago
  I don't think that analysis is complete. Obviously the point isn't that there no duplication within free software; just that there is less. Sure, clang competes with gcc. But as recently as the 90's there were dozens of commercial compilers were competing in the market. Now, everyone (outside of a handful of legacy platforms like windows) just uses gcc. Clearly that's a gain in productivity.
  • rbanffy 15y ago
    Not only that, but Gnome, KDE and xfce all build upon each other - experience and code - and explore different ideas. This accelerates their evolution.
  • nullc 15y ago
    And LLVM was bootstrapped by using GCC as the front end before clang was written to replace it. The freedom to combine with another program _temporarily_ while you bootstrap something better improves productivity significantly. And the world before GCC had a great many commercial compilers. Many of the crap. GCC replaced almost all the crap ones, so that only free compilers and a few commercial compilers that were good enough to offer something over GCC existed.