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Explaining IT behavior, what we're missing

Just a guess but I think it has a lot to do with what you've talked about
earlier, the social dimension to all of this. I would add that there's a
cultural factor.

Having been a part of the Windows world (where I occasionally visit), I
can say that from the developer's perspective Windows often seems
like the ideal platform. Microsoft in the past has marketed to
developers aggressively and won their allegiance by creating an
environment where they could build and tinker in a friendly, inviting
environment, and ultimately build things that make them some
money. It didn't matter how educated you were. Developers in the
ecosystem run the gamut from hobbyists-turned-developers to
people with Ph.D.'s. It didn't matter. You could get something done
that would interest somebody. Other developers differed, but they
were seen as being in a different camp that had values antithetical to
yours. Windows developers saw themselves as a part of a vast sea, a
large world in which they could exist, do some interesting things,
meet some interesting people, and make a living. I used to defend
Windows aggressively for this reason.

My mind had been fashioned after years of existing in, practically
growing up in, the commercial computing culture into believing that I
had to pick sides. If I wanted certain qualities in my programming
experience I had to pick Vendor A's product over Vendor B's. And of
course I recognized that this would close some doors and open others
in terms of what kinds of work I could do, and what technologies I'd
interact with. I accepted this. If Windows suffered from vulnerabilities
I'd try to help to find ways to make it more secure.

I grew up with microcomputers/personal computers/PCs. I liked that
modality. I knew the history of this modality, and that IBM's and
Microsoft's approach had won out. I figured this had happened for
good reason, and when most other microcomputer platforms fell
away, I adopted the PC. I came to like Unix as well, due to my college
experience, but I liked PCs more. They felt like computers that existed
on a human scale, accessible, rather than something that had to be
locked up in a room with restricted access privileges. They were
things I could interact with on my own terms. So I had an aversion to
anything that smacked of distancing technology from the user. The
idea of bringing that modality into my work felt good. When I first got
into the work world I didn't think much about the security concerns. If
I heard about a viral/worm infection I blamed the guy who wrote it,
not the PC. Interestingly, I experienced a time when Unix was
considered just as vulnerable as Windows: the late 1980s and the
Morris Worm. I was a freshman in college when that happened and I
remember what it did to the university systems, and to the internet at
large. I heard the complaint frequently "Unix security is an oxymoron".
That was a different time. Unix security improved. In my mind though
there really wasn't that much difference between PC security and Unix
security, because i had seen both get attacked.

What changed my mind was a culture shock. I had the experience of
watching someone demonstrate a platform that was beyond my
imagination in terms of what programming could be. It brought back
old desires, ones I had forgotten from when I entered college 20 years
ago. I realized I had to change my world view to understand what I
saw, and so that's what I did. I chose to enter and learn about a new
culture. It was not a switch in loyalties from Microsoft to open source,
though now I like open source better than I used to. That wasn't the
decision. The decision was to embrace a spirit of exploring and
learning sophisticated ideas, to become more educated. This came
about from a realization that only by doing that could I fulfill what I
desired from the work I believe in doing. From that flowed an
appreciation for good architecture, ideas that are well thought out,
not cobbled together from spare parts, using a subsistence mentality.

Having gone through this, I'm able to see better what you're getting at.
Having said that, while I can see that Unix is a better platform for
scalability, adaptability, and security, and perhaps user empowerment,
I see ways in which it could be improved. I think some of the criticisms
that have been leveled against it in past Talkbacks are legitimate.
Someone asked recently, "The real question should be why hasn't
anyone created something better?" I agree. It's about time, not to just
create a "better Unix", but to invent a better system architecture that is
yet unnamed.

This is a very different mentality. It is a culture that has more to do
with an interest in real science and real engineering than with a
culture whose only objective is to "make the computer do what I want
NOW". Maybe this is a mischaracterization, but I think it's a culture
that accepts delayed gratification. Future benefits come from what
you learn now. Progress appears slow by conventional standards, but I
think something great and unique happens later. The reward is in
realizing that you've participated in creating something that serves
your needs uniquely well, services your needs with minimum effort,
and has the feel of a work of art.

Douglas Engelbart had a revolutionary philosophy in his NLS project in
the 1960s, based on his idea of "augmenting the human intellect", of
using a computer system to facilitate the gradual improvement of a
group's abilities. As the group improved, so did the computer system
itself, because they also used the same philosophy of gradual
improvement with it. By the end of it they had emerged from a world
that only knew computers that operated based on batch jobs with
punch cards and teletypes, and created the modern computer system
metaphor that we know today: an interactive, collaborative
environment (even remotely collaborative, complete with video
conferencing, and a shared work environment!) that responded to
multiple user's actions immediately, and helped the group manage
and organize information in the most efficient fashion they knew how.
Many people in the field now know that Engelbart invented the
mouse, but he did a hell of a lot more than that. Learning more about
this, and the ARPA/Xerox PARC experience from the 60s and 70s, it
feels like some very fortunate people managed to capture lightening
in a bottle, and it has not been reproduced since. We ought to be
trying to get back to that.

Posted by: Mark Miller   Posted on: 01/27/09  (Edited: 01/27/2009 @ 01:50) You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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