Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on January 10, 2004 12:57 AM
Life today is too complicated for us to expect to live the way people did in the early 19th century. Today, capitalism is the ecosystem in which we humans live -- particularly in places like the US and Europe. We need it to go on living (e.g., food and housing). While the market's interest is not the sole interest of the people, it does play a fundamental role in everyone's lives. If it were to completely fail, there would be few indeed with the time to continue making free software -- they would be too busy finding a way to live.
Ecosystems are about maintaining a balance. I agree that the current balance is tilted too far in the direction of proprietary software, but it would be just as bad to tilt it entirely the other way. The balance is correcting itself, we just need to have patience, and keep doing what we're going now (because that's what's doing the correcting).
On another topic, you mention that the Linux community is free from "gurus". It is not, they just don't get paid for their efforts , unlike Jobs and Gates. Every community has leaders, and those leaders are seldom appointed, but rise to the top due to their personal traits and expertise. In a highly technical area such as Linux, these leaders are indeed "gurus". And, while you could certainly replace Linus, or RMS, note that you would be replacing them with someone who is pretty much the same -- the same traits that made the originals rise to the top would be in their replacements,too. Really, only the names will have been changed. The leader of a community is a product of the community. In that respect, the free and proprietary software communities aren't all that different, however much you would like them to be.
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Capitalism is our ecosystem
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on January 10, 2004 12:57 AMEcosystems are about maintaining a balance. I agree that the current balance is tilted too far in the direction of proprietary software, but it would be just as bad to tilt it entirely the other way. The balance is correcting itself, we just need to have patience, and keep doing what we're going now (because that's what's doing the correcting).
On another topic, you mention that the Linux community is free from "gurus". It is not, they just don't get paid for their efforts , unlike Jobs and Gates. Every community has leaders, and those leaders are seldom appointed, but rise to the top due to their personal traits and expertise. In a highly technical area such as Linux, these leaders are indeed "gurus". And, while you could certainly replace Linus, or RMS, note that you would be replacing them with someone who is pretty much the same -- the same traits that made the originals rise to the top would be in their replacements,too. Really, only the names will have been changed. The leader of a community is a product of the community. In that respect, the free and proprietary software communities aren't all that different, however much you would like them to be.
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