The open source difference: Tetris!?!

Here's the difference between an open source software company and one that is closed source (based on open source or not): the puzzle game Tetris.

Let me explain.... Last week, a user on the vyatta-hackers mailing list, Joel Krauska, downloaded our latest image and then proceeded to add a Debian package for Tetris to his Vyatta router/firewall. He did this on his own, with no help from us, and then proceeded to write up a wiki page on how he did it. We had never met Joel (although we did meet him yesterday for the first time), did not help him with his puzzle enhancement and were pleasantly surprised when he sent over the screenshot of Tetris running on his Vyatta device.

As you might expect, Tetris may not make it into our next build and this functionality is not a core piece of a router/firewall, but it clearly shows how the Vyatta product empowers users to enhance and modify their networking devices to meet their needs (even if that need is an puzzle game, an MP3 server or WAN compression :-) To me, this is a shining example of how open source software provides unique flexibility and features that vendor-driven software rarely exhibits.

Oh yes, in addition to Tetris, Joel did provide us two kernel level patches and modified our boot sequence to include our logo and banner message. Excellent enhancements that will make our next build.

Thanks for the work Joel - you're definitely helping us to lead the industry toward an open source alternative for networking. The folks at Vyatta and the world of Tetris-lovers raise our glasses to you!