Hacker News Reader

Replace "Rails 2.3" with "IE 6" or "Windows XP" and you have enterprise software.

Yes, you have the code for Rails and can fix/make changes, but the further you deviate from what other people are fixing bugs in, the less you benefit from using open source.

View on HN

No. In the case of IE 6 or Windows XP it's been shipped to millions of users and they have to go through the trouble of upgrading themselves. Besides, those are platforms, not frameworks.

If there's a bug or security hole in Rails 2.3, we go in and fix it for our users and ship it immediately.

The point being that you have work to backport the fix, whereas keeping up with current other people fix it for you, and more eyes see it, so the fix is more likely correct.

Forking off your own special version of something is a recipe for eventual pain when keeping up the old version is worse than upgrading.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com