avm's Journal: Cars are cool

I think cars are a nice meatspace analogue to open source software. Mine is getting a new kernel (motor, transmission, ECU) compiled/installed right now. It will work with all my existing stuff, with only slight interface changes (a few wires here, a bracket there, and minor adjustments to the exhaust). If I don't like something, anything, I can change how it works, or remove it and replace with something totally different. The factory ECU is closed-source, but I can replace that with a totally programmable aftermarket one.

The only glitch in this analogy is money, though perhaps it's not such a glitch. On the car, any modification which requires me to buy a part costs money (I don't have the equipment to build my own parts at the moment). In the open-source world, any modification requires code and time, usually lots. Time == money, so perhaps the analogy isn't as skewed as I first thought.

Oh well, enough rambling for now...