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by hellepardo 2967 days ago
I have always felt that, in a "typical" open-source project, I could approach the community, join it, build some rapport, and eventually help with the decision-making process (assuming I was any good and people in the community liked me).

But with Google-run (or other company-run) open-source projects, it's a completely different story. Want to be a TensorFlow maintainer? Great, sure, you can contribute, but you'll never get to make any decisions about the direction of the project itself unless you're inside Google.

To me it's a disappointing semi-abuse of the term "open source"... it doesn't mean what I think it should...
3 comments
cromwellian 2967 days ago
This is true of any large project. Do you think you’ll be able join Linux and make decisions about Linux kernel architecture?

The larger and more important a project, the more bureaucratic it will be, and the more people you’ll be competitive with for attention.

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golergka 2967 days ago
> assuming I was any good and people in the community liked me

...you could always find other people who think the same way and create a fork.

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FLUX-YOU 2967 days ago
If you are good enough to contribute to Tensorflow and be able to come up with new directions, why not just get a job at Google so you can do that?

This isn't unlike any other open source project ran by people who don't want to consider all input from others. Not all suggestions are worth serious consideration, after all. Open source doesn't mean I'm beholden to your every whim just because you've contributed. That's what forks are for.

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hellepardo 2967 days ago
> why not just get a job at Google so you can do that?

Don't want to move to California? Can't pass the interview? Salary too low in the offer? There could be lots of reasons.

I agree with your other points, but what I'm saying is not exactly that. What I'm saying is that TensorFlow is not a community-led project in the way that other open-source projects are. It's Google-led, and if you don't like it, you can go away or fork it (...and if you fork it, it's unlikely you'll get many users given the Google marketing machine).

(The same complaints have been and are being regularly made against Red Hat, and also Fedora, given that Fedora is basically "experimental" Red Hat.)

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FLUX-YOU 2967 days ago
Convince Google it's better as a community-led project. Maybe they will have some convincing counter-points about why it's better the way that it is that we're not considering. They've likely already been through this debate.

Consider if Tensorflow were half as useful as it is today if it was community-led and it was led by a shitty community.

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tetromino_ 2967 days ago
You don't necessarily have to move to California - see https://www.google.com/about/locations/
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