[erlang-questions] Erlang 10 years of Open Source; it is time for the next step

[Rick Pettit]

On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 05:15:14PM -0500, Rick Pettit wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 03:51:56PM -0400, Alex Alvarez wrote:
> > I have to say that I don't see how could anyone at this point in time
> > question the benefits of open sourcing and how it'd be good for Ericsson to
> > open Erlang development more.  Yes, it cannot save a project that is doom to
> > begin with, but in the case of Erlang it can only help improve it.  Now,
> > this does not mean for Ericsson not to have control on how things progress,
> > quite the opposite.  But with the amount of competition out there for
> > developer minds and souls, Erlang is doom if doesn't keep enticing
> > developers, particularly the ones who are willing to put in the time to help
> > develop the language.  It is just a matter of time for the .NETs, the Javas
> > and other platforms to provide the same level of functionality Erlang
> > provides today.  If Erlang cannot munster and keep enough developers around,
> > it's all over!
> 
> Sorry, but this is the silliest post I've read on this list in years.

Ever wish you could take back hitting the send button on your mail client?

I do :-)

Please allow me to apologize--did not mean to come off like such a jerk.

Erlang is a fantastic language and has been for years. I have production
systems requiring 24x7 uptime which I've maintained (fixed bugs, added
features) without ever taking the system down, not even for a second.

I don't see the java community touching the robustness of erlang/OTP anytime
soon--maybe not in our life time. I've talked with my "java friends" about
the differences, and they just can't hold a candle to what you get with erlang
out of the box (let alone if you know how to code OTP). Ditto for the .NET
folks.

Though it might be nice to open the code up more (I'm not giving an opinion
here, btw), I think it's rather far fetched to claim that "it's all over" if
Ericsson doesn't do X and Y. Every few months someone joins the list to remind
us how we all need to find new jobs (because erlang is going to go away real
soon, etc, etc), but that theory doesn't seem to match reality.

-Rick