Top behavior differences

[Bob Hall]

On Sun, Sep 10, 2006 at 08:56:31AM -0400, stan wrote:
> Can someone explain to me why top's handling of multi processor
> status display is different on FreeBSD, than it is on Linux?

Open source started with the concept of individuals hacking the source
code to get the features they want. The commericial ideal of users paying
for features they want was replaced by the ideal of users doing the work
to create the features they want. Open source has evolved into the
concept of many users getting a free ride as a relatively small number
of open source programmers do the work for them, without pay. 

Possible reasons why open source software X doesn't have feature Y:

1) The people who created X weren't interested in feature Y. Since they
were doing unpaid work, they created the features they were interested
in.

2) The core code of X was written before the technological advance that
made feature Y useful, and no one has needed feature Y badly enough to
add it to X.

3) The creators of X didn't think of feature Y, and no one has gotten in
touch with the maintainers to suggest it.

4) Only one or two people want feature Y, and the amount of work
necessary to add it to X greatly exceeds the benefit of providing a
feature for one or two people. Also, no one has contacted the
maintainers of X to ask how much it would cost to change their minds
about this.

5) No one wants feature Y badly enough to devote the necessary free
time to learn the skills and do the work necessary to create it. Since
it's not high on anyone's list of things to do in their spare time,
everyone has chosen to wait until it moves to the top of someone else's
list of things to do in their spare time.