# Are you confused by forks?



## pacija (Apr 25, 2013)

I am getting confused by forks lately. I have been using OpenOffice for years but then came LibreOOffice. I switched because of negative publicity against Oracle. Then the same happened with Nagios -> Icinga. Now I read a lot about MySQL -> MariaDB switching. 

How about you? Do you stick to the familiar or you move to forks?


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## Beastie (Apr 25, 2013)

I switch if I care enough about the reasons behind the decision to fork and/or I need the new features included in the fork.

Usually it's time to switch when the original developer is unwilling to apply well-needed patches or threatens to scrap the project at any time.


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## kpa (Apr 25, 2013)

Forks will happen when the original project seemingly stalls for whatever reasons. One of the best examples is Mozilla Firefox that is basically a fork of the browser application of the original Mozilla Suite. 

Confused? Sounds like there's a thinking here that are you're required to use a certain brand of software and stay loyal to it once you've started using it. I simply don't think in those terms, I pick and choose based on my very own criteria.


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## jalla (Apr 25, 2013)

kpa said:
			
		

> Forks will happen when the original project seemingly stalls for whatever reasons.


Don't underestimate personal chemistry and politics. Great programmers often have a big ego 

Sometimes one branch of a project prosper and the other fades away (remember 386bsd anyone?), but often similar projects with different goals can crosspollinate for the benefit of everyone (net,free,open,dragonfly,...).

Weather it's politics or functionality that decide your selection of software, freedom of choice is allways a good thing.


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## pacija (Apr 25, 2013)

Foreword from "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman describes my concerns nicely:



> What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.


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