wild 1995

Chapter 82 Cooperation
In the more than a month since Di Ye proposed the concept of open source, he has received cold reception on the Internet and in reality. Most of the replies on Cfido are sarcasm. Although it is not so bad in reality, it is basically ignored.

For example, although Liu Shaosong believes that the term "open source" is more accurate than the free software movement, he has no interest in advocating it vigorously. Dean Fei believes that "open source" will help improve the reputation of Yunda School of Computer Science, but that's all.

Professor Xu Jiafu was the first person who really valued the concept of open source. He had carefully studied those open source articles before and asked Di Ye many profound questions. Among them, there are two most critical ones. One is what is the core value of open source, and the other is what is the real advantage of the open source community against multinational companies such as Microsoft and IBM.

There is a famous saying in "The Analects of Confucius", which is called if the name is not correct, the words will not be smooth, and the words will not be smooth, and things will be bad.

The first key question Professor Xu raised was "rectification of names". When asked why open source should be used, Di Ye gave a very lofty rhetoric - breaking monopoly and reducing the cost of human learning and using knowledge.

The second key question is "smoothness". When asked why open source can be successful, Di Ye's answer is not "freedom", "free", "safety" and other rhetoric popular in the 90s, but discusses two things that are not clearly stated in those few open source articles-scenario adaptation and technology dumping.

"Closed-source companies represented by Microsoft and IBM can only develop software in a period of one or two years based on limited user feedback. Therefore, their products cannot meet all usage scenarios, nor can they adapt to changes in usage scenarios in a timely manner..."

"Let me take Microsoft's Office as an example. It is designed according to the office scenarios of Americans. However, the office scenarios of Chinese and Americans are different. Therefore, some functions are very popular in the United States, but useless in China, and some functions are very useful in China, but Office does not provide them. If it is open source software, there is no such problem, because everyone can customize it according to their own scenarios."

"For another example, Office 4.0 was released in January last year. After that, the world has undergone great changes. The World Wide Web has begun to rise. However, with the development speed of Office, 1 will not be released until August this year. There are more than one year of usage scenarios in the middle. If it is open source software, it will quickly fill this gap with active feedback from users, so as to seize the market."

"The advantages brought about by scenario adaptation will eventually evolve into technology dumping, because open source software is free and open source, which can attract a large number of scientific research institutions and small and medium-sized enterprises to use it. Out of academic and commercial considerations, these users will actively participate in the development and maintenance of open source software according to their own scenarios. Once technology dependence is formed, the market share of closed source software will be squeezed like a snowball, thereby achieving a dumping effect."

This set of theories was only summed up after the development of the Internet in the 21st century. It was very novel in 1995, and Professor Xu Jiafu became very interested, so he called several professors over and changed the communication between him and Di Ye into a small seminar.

The professors at Jinling University are all big backgrounds, but Di Ye has a small red flower body, so naturally he will not be stage-frightened. He quoted extensively and eloquently. He re-explained the open-source concept of re-engineering, and finally concluded: "I think that after the combination of open-source and the Internet, the knowledge gap between domestic and foreign computer industries for more than ten years or even decades will be smoothed out. There is a possibility of catching up with or even surpassing developed countries in Europe and America in a short period of time. Therefore, I will unswervingly promote this concept, and I hope that teachers and teachers can give you a lot of support."

"Well said, young people should have such ambition!"

"This theory sounds okay. The University of California, Berkeley has long implemented it. Their Berkeley software suite and Berkeley software agreement are typical examples, and they have trained many excellent programmers."

"Academically, it is feasible, but not necessarily commercially. The United States has long had the Internet, and the free software movement has always been open source. After so many years of work, it has not come up with anything."

"All the software companies in our country add up, and the annual revenue is not as much as a fraction of that of Microsoft. If you go head-to-head, you will definitely not be able to beat it. Therefore, it is better to try the open source path and follow the mass line. Maybe there will be a chance of survival."

Di Ye was not surprised by the debates and doubts of several professors, because the first large-scale contact with open source software in domestic colleges and universities had to wait until the end of 1995 after the completion of CERNET.

CERNET is also commonly known as the education network, and a lot of open source software was used in the construction process, so after the completion, South China University of Technology founded SunSite, the first Internet software mirror site in China, which allowed Linux, Apache and other excellent open source software to spread among major universities.

In March 1995, Linux had become popular and there were many commercial applications, but the country knew nothing about it, because the first time Linux entered China was not through the Internet, but a doctor named Gong Min brought it back from Finland on a floppy disk in the summer of 3.

But even if the professors at Jinling University knew Linux, Di Ye didn't intend to use it to prove his point, because at this moment, Linux is free software, not open source software.

Therefore, if you want to implement the concept of open source and distinguish it from free software, you must have your own iconic product as a model. Di Ye has already prepared this product, which is a browser. Therefore, before he came to Jinling, he ignored Xia Fangfei’s temptation, stayed up late typing and drafting, and wrote forward-looking discussions on technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. He wanted to use this to lure Jinling University to send students to join his R&D team.

"Teachers, as I said just now, open source and the Internet are complementary and indispensable, and the bridge between the two is the browser, so I wrote an open source browser..."

Di Ye spent an afternoon explaining the browser he wrote and his future R&D plans in full, which successfully attracted the attention of several professors. Professor Xu Jiafu even sighed, saying that if he could be two years younger, he would definitely go to Yuncheng University to snatch Di Ye over in person. According to the senior expert retirement regulations promulgated in 1983, professors over 70 years old can only do research and writing work, and cannot lead graduate students.

"Di Ye, you applied for our school, but you didn't come to graduate school. Let us have fun for nothing, it's not justified!"

"Professor Xu, it is difficult to leave my homeland. I am very sorry and sorry that I cannot come to Jinling University to study as a graduate student."

Di Ye said a few words on the scene, then took out a bank card, and said, "In order to express my apology, I decided to donate 20 yuan to Jinling University as a research fund."

The professors looked at each other, their expressions more exciting than when they saw the browser just now.

In the mid-90s, Jinling University made great achievements in academics, and was ranked third by the Ministry of Education, second only to Qingbei. However, it was in an extremely difficult state economically, and was almost dragged into bankruptcy by the new campus in Pukou.

The old campus of Jinling University is located in the Gulou District of the city center, with an area of ​​only 700 mu, which cannot accommodate the growing scale of teaching. Therefore, a new campus was built in Pukou in 1987. Due to the delay in financial allocation, research funds were seriously insufficient. In the worst case, a large amount of project funds were owed, and even teachers’ salaries could not be paid.

Now Di Ye gave 20 yuan as soon as they met, and the professors were naturally overjoyed. They hardly refused, and immediately called the school's senior management.

There is no disadvantage in getting help in the snow, and then Di Ye enjoyed super-standard treatment. Not only was he personally interviewed by the principal, but he also got what he wanted—the School of Computer Science, Jinling University will send 5 outstanding fresh graduates to Pengcheng to participate in the research and development of the browser.

When he returned to the hotel at night, Di Ye stood in front of the glass window of the suite, looking at the lit night scene, and muttered smugly: "Wait a few months to make a lot of money, set up an open source education foundation, spend money everywhere, and enjoy the joy of being a funder father harvesting talents."

　Thanks to the book friend "Yang Yuanying" for the reward and support
　　
　
(End of this chapter)