WIRED has an interview with Bill Joy. Some really interesting answers to various questions.
I've always said that all successful systems were small systems initially. Great, world-changing things - Java, for instance - always start small. The ideal project is one where people don't have meetings, they have lunch. The size of the team should be the size of the lunch table.Open source is fine, but it doesn't take a worldwide community to create a great operating system. Look at Ken Thompson creating Unix, Stephen Wolfram writing Mathematica in a summer, James Gosling in his office making Java. Now, there's nothing wrong with letting other people help, but open source doesn't assist the initial creative act. What we need now are great things. I don't need to see the source code. I just want a system that works.
Java is a "great, world-changing thing"? I think I detect the faint whiff of a biased worldview, don't you?
It's sad, but it seems that he actually believes things like "Stephen Wolfram writing Mathematica in a summer". Even superficial research will show you that Mathematica development stretches back for many years, back unto the mists of the uncredited labors of graduate students.
Posted by: Lee Phillips on November 25, 2003 10:59 AM