ZeroMQ

Chapter 6. The ØMQ Community

People sometimes ask me what’s so special about ØMQ. My standard answer is true: that ØMQ is arguably the best answer we have to the vexing question, “How do we make the distributed software that the 21st century demands?” But more than that, ØMQ is special because of its community. This is ultimately what separates the wolves from the sheep.

There are three main open source development patterns. The first is the large firm dumping code to break the market for others. This is the Apache Foundation model. The second is tiny teams or small firms building their dreams. This is the most common open source model, which can be very successful commercially. The last is aggressive and diverse communities that swarm over a problem landscape. This is the Linux model, and the one to which we aspire with ØMQ.

It’s hard to overemphasize the power and persistence of a working open source community. There really does not seem to be a better way of making software for the long term. Not only does the community choose the best problems to solve, but it solves them minimally, carefully, and then looks after these answers for years—perhaps decades—until they’re no longer relevant. Then it quietly puts them away.

To really benefit from ØMQ, you need to understand the community. At some point down the road, you’ll want to submit a patch, an issue, or an add-on. You might want to ask someone for help. You will probably want to bet a part of your business ...