There used to be this farmer, Red, that sold the most delicious
fruit. They were very good fruits. Many people liked them and bought
them for their families. The farmer would make the fruit seeds
available, as was the custom in the land.
Another farmer, Fred, decided to take the seeds and start growing some
of his own fruit. It took weeks to grow the fruit. The only difference
was that he didn't put on the little Red sticker. Instead he put on
a Fred sticker. Many people used the Fred version. Fred gave away
his fruit.
Many people started showing up for the free Fred version. Still, Fred
continued to give away the fruit. In fact he turned down donations
because a part of him didn't want to get paid for doing something like
that. There were whole books Fred had read about altruism and the
death of altruism and how money corrupts. Those thoughts maybe did
not apply to Fred's garden, but Fred maybe realized that money wasn't
the chief motivation for laboring for weeks and then giving away the
fruit. After all, Fred was a great farmer, and if needed could very
well sell his farming expertise for boatloads of money.
People started showing up. Some didn't know about the work that Fred
had put into his fruit. Some wanted to know when the fruit would be
ready. Some went as far as asking why the fruit wasn't ready. Some
said, "Farmer Red grew his fruit months ago. Farmer Jed already has
grown his fruit. Why haven't you?" Some said, "I don't know much
about farming, but you should get people to help. Not me, since I
know nothing of farming, but get other people." Some said, "I don't
know much about farming. I want to help." Some said, "I've never
farmed this fruit before, but I can help."
Now Fred had read this book about how adding farmers to a field won't
necessarily make the fruit grow any faster. Maybe it's true, he
thought. Some of the experienced farmers had already been helping
anyway, so that was something.
I don't know how Fred continues to do his farming. But I appreciate
the free fruit. I appreciate the great effort that Fred has put into
the fruit, despite the chorus of voices asking why the fruit doesn't
arrive sooner. It's good fruit and worth waiting for.
(I apologize for the OT post that has nothing to do with CentOS).
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