the backstory

Ivan provides some insider perspective on the OLPC discussions that have been in the news lately, explaining some of the backstory behind public statements. It's a great post, well worth reading. Absolutely any time you see news about open source software projects, companies around open source, etc., its good to remember that there is always a backstory to the facts that are stated. "The software is green". Well, is the software green because there was a secret rebellion by one engineer the night before the release? There are always arguments on some train somewhere, secret power struggles, defiant engineers causing problems or huge successes despite their orders, personalities that simply cannot work together, any imaginable kind of extenuating circumstance. No matter how much we like being engineers and formal and precise, software is still concieved and built by flaky, moody humans who are driven by whim. I wouldn't change that for the world. And no, I won't be publishing my collection of backstories, not anytime soon :) That will have to wait for my memoirs.