Activars

一直在忙着工作的事情，清闲下来准备一下毕业项目的资料。特别是代码版本管理的软件，有考虑到CVS, SVN等等，这些大多数是中心服务器结构的管理，最近看到Google工程师开发的Git, 让我感到一阵兴奋。

Linus Torvalds 开发了Git，一开始主要因为CVS和SVN不能满足开源的需求，需要一种新的方式管理Linux Kernel。Git是一个distributed SCM(Source Code Management). 他的最大优势在于开发人员可以随意的创建自己的Brunch，简便多版本的整合(merge)问题，并且优化下载速度。

如果有人用过CVS, SVN在一个开发小组，都会发现这样的问题：大家都不能Commit，直到觉得代码被第二个开发人员review过，或者通过测试才可以，这样才能保持Source trunk的整洁。这样是件很麻烦的事情，如果在SVN, CVS上创建branch, 做自己的一些新功能的试验，也会造成麻烦，你会想到底用什么tag? 大的公司里面会有一堆的规则创建branch(加B下划线版本号码等等），然后整合到trunk上又给自己代来一堆麻烦，所以如果用过centerailized SCM开发人员大都会在trunk上开发。

如果你是一个充分利用Brunch的开发人员，那Git可以是一个不错的选择。给个Git官方网站，还有YouTube 2005年的Git开发介绍会(一个小时的录像)。

If you are a western reader, you may not hear about xiaonei(校内, means “at the school”). Searching “xiaonei” at Google UK site, possibly, the first one is their home page and the next would be this criticism article “Blatant Facebook Rip-Off Gets Acquired“.Also you will find CrunchBase giving the company a definition:

Xiaonei.com is a Chinese Facebook clone that was acquired by Oak Pacific, a Chinese internet consortium for an undisclosed sum.

Personally, I’m a Xiaonei user. The application itself is fairly immature. There is a big question of how their team manages the development because all the ongoing new features expose a lot of bugs, which means the users will definitely spot these bugs – seems (to me) that they don’t have a good development procedure.

Why this is bad sample? Everyone cares about what other people think of your country. You have seen a lot criticism news on how people clone Wii turning it to Vii, how people clone iPhone turning it to M4, etc. Every time I see those similar products coming out and read western users’ comments, you will get the impression of “copy cat”, “cheap bad product”. This is not positive impression if national industry wants to enter the world wide market.

Here we come, another bad sample. I think developers at Xiaonei has been brain-washed. I talked to one of the xiaonei developers a few weeks ago. Basically, he thinks that the clone is nothing wrong and the interface clone is not a big worry. (Well, I would worry about the icons copyright issue, isn’t it important?). What gives me a even bad impression is the company have a large number of developers graduated from top 3 universities in China. Then, you have to think about the education, what do they learn at university? University is not about knowledge, it’s the place where students grow up and shape their own personalities.

Here is a video, the CEO of Xiaonei talks about Product DNA), on YouTube. Ironic. Basically, what he said was that Chinese market is always clone others idea (online video market). It’s not going to be a good market share if he builds a video site clone again. So, here we come! The SNS clone is a better money booster.

The web industry in China is a sad story. Less people care about standards and health of the web. I read an article a few days ago saying the most dangerous domains are end with “.hk” and “.cn’. I’m a Mac user now, but I did get a lot of spams back to the Windows days when I browse some chinese sites(sometimes, they don’t render well in Firefox).

A product has its own “personality” I believe. It generates the culture in the company and exposes to the world – especially dealling with the web. The product name is under the clone category, it will never get out from it. Everyone knows we need to protect the natural enviroment, it hits back if you don’t. So does the web.