FOSS innovators

This week in my open source software class, we researched the backgrounds and bios of some of the most influential people in the history of the free/open source software movement. Reading about pioneers like Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, and Tim Berners-Lee was eye-opening.

I was struck by how the origins of free and open source software were driven by a combination of brilliant minds who cared deeply about principles like freedom, collaboration, and access to knowledge. At the same time, they were rebels who bucked against the increasing corporatization and proprietary lock-in of software in the 1970s and 80s.

People like Stallman launched ambitious initiatives like the GNU Project out of a sense of moral conviction that software should be free for all to study, modify, and redistribute. Torvalds created Linux almost by accident when he unleashed his hobby operating system kernel to be built on by developers around the world. Some of them, like Linus Torvalds, have also been known for making controversial statements, such as this quote: “So this patch is utter and absolute garbage, and should be shot in the head and buried very very deep. Please immediately delete it from the whole internet. Linus”. Interestingly, while their pioneering work opened up software to collaboration, some of these trailblazers can still be quite harsh and uncompromising in their criticism of the communities they helped create. This purist, unfiltered approach is fascinating as it might be highlighting their commitment to principles over niceties.

What’s remarkable is how these disparate efforts congealed into robust movements and communities over time, enabled by the rise of the internet as a collaboration platform.

Project candidates

On the progress front, our group is down to two potential projects to contribute to: Pandas, a data analysis tool, and Danswer, an AI-powered search engine across a company’s information and docs. We are leaning towards Pandas, but are still evaluating Danswer as well.

Evaluating pandas

Pandas Pros:

• Extremely widely used data analysis library
• Robust, active community of contributors
• Well-defined processes and documentation
• Have a better understanding as I’ve used it extensively

Pandas Cons:

• Massive, complex codebase could have steep learning curve
• Competition from other contributors for issues/PRs
• Fast paced

Evaluating danswer

Danswer Pros:

• Smaller project where our contributions may be higher impact
• Growing need for natural language query tools
• Chance to learn more about innovative AI/NLP technologies

Danswer Cons:

• Less widespread adoption and smaller community
• Newer project with less structure
• Issues are more general and vague
• Working in AI/NLP space could be more technically complex

We have more discussions and investigation to do, but are excited to get started contributing to one of the two open source projects over the next few weeks!