I can't say this Slate article by Chris Wilson is the sort of thing I would normally comment on, but read it yourself and see if what struck me strikes you...
Wilson states the White House using Drupal site management software is bad for the following reasons:
- Drupal knows best ("It's not that Drupal thinks you're evil. It just thinks you're ignorant."),
- Drupal is impenetrable,
- Drupal hates change,
- Drupal is disorganized, and...
- Drupal is righteous.
It took me a moment, and then I understood exactly why the White House chose Drupal:
It's the software that is Barack Obama!
After all, what is Obama if not...
- Egotistical,
- Impenetrable,
- Conventional,
- Disorganized, and...
- Self-righteous?
It's a match made in Heaven.
Chris Wilson doesn't like Drupal because it requires intelligence and care to use. This is apparently too much for him. If you apply intelligence and care, you get good results. If you don't, you get a bad result, just like his column, and also just like your comment.
Posted by: bobv | October 29, 2009 at 08:49 AM
Yeah, that's it. We're stoopid and you and Barack are super-geniuses...
Where exactly have we seen "intelligence and care" from Barack H.?
1) Afghanistan?
2) Health care?
3) Climate change?
4) Gay rights?
5) Government finance?
6) Race relations (aka "stoopid cops")
I suppose we should give him another year or so to do something... Something other than allowing Pelosi and Reid to shovel pork to the drones, that is.
Posted by: Dennis The Peasant | October 29, 2009 at 09:18 AM
Mr. Peasant, you're displaying a lapse of your usual sound judgment in eschewing dumbass ideology here...
Chris Wilson is an eeeediot. Anyone who states "The open-source movement has done wonderful things for the Web. But at its core, it remains a religion." is an effin' dolt.
Disclaimer: I develop closed-source software for a closed-source platform. Both my software and the platform have benefited greatly by incorporating BSD-licensed open source software.
Posted by: bonze blayk | October 29, 2009 at 10:51 AM
Bonze-
The merits or lack thereof of open-source software doesn't interest me and never will. What interested me about the Slate article was Wilson's assessment of the software being used by the WH and how that assessment dovetails with my assessment of the WH itself. That's all.
I understand the fact that different folks having differing opinions on different software platforms... Like I said: It ain't something that interests me in the least. I use software; I have no idea how it works.
Posted by: Dennis The Peasant | October 29, 2009 at 11:13 AM
What bonze said. Chris Wilson is just another guy with an opinion not based on any evidence other than what he and his friends have decided is the Holy Grail of software and security.
Disclaimer: I work in a government information technology department and deal with this kind of stuff from technology "experts" every day.
Posted by: jane2 | October 29, 2009 at 11:14 AM
Isn't 'Drupal' Hindu for 'Obama?'
Posted by: richard mcenroe | October 29, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Could be, or maybe the authors of the software really like Rupaul.
Posted by: Dennis The Peasant | October 29, 2009 at 11:32 AM
Rupaul? Isn't that the guy running on the Libertarian ticket?
Posted by: DocSavage | October 29, 2009 at 01:05 PM
Drupal is written in php, a language that has considerable support of Microsoft ( as in closed source Mac-Daddy, evil incarnate Microsoft Corporation ) since 2006 to enable further development of various libraries to extend php.
Since Drupal is written in php, you can't help but see the source code. Because php is a scripting language and not a program compiled from source, it is silly to claim the software is open source.
I recall trying to use drupal for something that I ended up using perl for. Don't remember what it was, though. I do remember the documentation was terrible, and it ended up being easier just to write similar scripts in perl to do the same thing...
Whatever it was...
Dunno...
Posted by: badanov | October 29, 2009 at 05:40 PM
Forgive me or chastise me, but I am so blogging this piece of brutal brilliance. With full attribution to your stellar brains and wit, of course, Mr. Peasant.
Posted by: daphne | October 29, 2009 at 06:17 PM
Daphne-
Go for it. I like your stuff, and am flattered.
Posted by: Dennis The Peasant | October 29, 2009 at 06:24 PM
I have a feeling that if John McCain had won, the White House would be running Blogger.
Posted by: CGHill | October 29, 2009 at 08:34 PM
If John McCain had won, the White House would still be trying to figure out how to install Windows 3.1 on an Apple II.
Posted by: Dennis The Peasant | October 29, 2009 at 09:26 PM
Screw the code talk. Thank you for our continuing education credits in Winter Blues 201 - C.
Posted by: Chris Rampley | October 30, 2009 at 01:07 AM