Wondering

This post is gonna be some how technical, as during the last days I kept asking myself this question:

Why usually every student in computer science is thinking about either:

1- Making a new Operating System.
2- Making a new RDBMS.
3- Making a new programming language.



And everytime you ask someone why you think about this?

You got these answers:

1- For learning (this is the only good answer).
2- For making something for us to work with.

The main problem here that they never ask them selves a very simple question:

What we'll add by making this project?!!


Because anyone could build kernel with it's loaded in less than 10 months, this is not the problem here, I'll give you a very simple and very known example, Linux OS, can you tell me during the early releases of Linux, why could someone stop using Unix and use Linux?!

Simply because Linux is free.

Now lets imagine that Linux was in the same price as Unix, now everyone could think in this way and make this comparison:


Unix Linux

Not Free Not Free
Unix arc. Unix arc.
Well tested for years and having good support New and using it may be risky


So now, would any one try to make his business on Linux?!
Of course not, give me one reason for this!!


Now let's return back to our point, every one from those people, just tells me that he's reading now in Linux source code and start making his own OS!!!

So the question here, what's new here?!
It's still using Unix-Like Arc., even you can't make a community for it as no one will leave Linux community and come to work in exactly the same (let's say that he/she can do it exactly the same like Linux which is hard) arc. and start again from scratch to reach the same result?!!!

No one ever thinks like that.

If it's for learning, then look around you, there're dozens of loaders and kernels every where, ask your self why people haven't completed it to be a complete OS?!!

For the same reason, why re-invent the wheel?!

Why start walking in a street and you know well that at the end you'll be ending on the same place others are beginning now?!!

If you really wanna make a new OS, then make your own arch., invent something new, something which will let the people say: "Hey, this OS is totally new, let's try it".

Because the idea of the Re-Make may be good in movies, in songs, but in software, it's useless, totally mess.

The something happened in making a new programming language, they just try to make a new programming language by just changing the syntax, the question again, why?!!

If you tell me as example that you would make Arabic syntax programming language I may agree with you (although you can build an addition layer over any existing programming language like C/C++ to translate your new syntax to the old one, in other words, just build the parse tree and pass it to the old compiler), why I could leave X language and go to Y language and the only difference that instead of writing int Variable, I'll write Variable int, or things like that, this is also worth nothing, total mess.

Imagine now that someone spent 5 years from his life and then came after that saying: "Heyyy, I invented a wheel from scratch, I didn't use any already made materials, I built it from the ground zero"

What you'll tell him?!
Simply: "Are you fool?!!!
Why you could spend 5 years from your life making something useless like that?!!"

But if he came and said that the wheel he invented is multi-size, or can't be exploded, or anything like that, this will be useful.


My final comment, there're a lot of wheels out there, either use them, or if you don't like to use them, build a spaceship, no one needs more wheels here!