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http://www.businessweek.com

Anyone following the open source phenomenon can’t help but be amazed at what appears to be volunteerism on a massive scale for corporate gain. Almost every company in the world has some strands of open source code floating around their company. Whether it is the Linux operating system, Apache web server, the IP protocol or database programs such as MySQL, open source software has permeated corporations around the globe.

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Jimbob's picture
Created by Jimbob 13 years 47 weeks ago
Category: Business   Tags:
lozz's picture

lozz

13 years 47 weeks 6 days 4 hours ago

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We're entrepreneurs?

Nice score, Jimbob. He sets out to analyse the Free Software Community, but then his background inclinations prevent him from understanding any further.

He 'has' to see us through a prism of personal greed, or at least, selfishness. He even invokes the high priests of greed, David Hume, Adam Smith and Ayn Rand, to support his view.

Finally, he tries to compare us to entrepreneurs, a class of people utterly different in character to the Free Software Community.

Someone should introduce him to Richard Stallman.

kiba's picture

kiba

13 years 47 weeks 5 days 17 hours ago

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The next thing you're going

The next thing you're going to say capitalism is evil, aren't you?

Just maybe..just maybe..that selfishness and altruism isn't mutually exclusive?

You know...some of us in the free software community are actual entrepreneurs?

Entrepreneurship itself isn't opposed to free software. Monopolism is.

In fact, entrepreneurship should cherish free software because free software increase the pie for everybody, allowing more people to make a living(and more money) from it as well benefit from it. That's only a good thing.
-----Signature----
*Copyright creates monopolies. Copyleft promote the free market.

*"Monopoly corrupts. Absolute monopoly corrupts absolutely"-- http://againstmonopoly.org

lozz's picture

lozz

13 years 47 weeks 5 days 14 hours ago

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Entrepreneurs ain't entreprenuers

No, I'm not about to say capitalism is evil. Capitalism has been shown to be an eminently workable system that can give everyone a fair enough deal, from the lowest worker, to the capitalist, to society in general. Ideally, this will supply plenty of competition, and subsequent innovation, that is enormously beneficial to everyone.

That was not how the major international financiers wanted things. They wanted monopolies that they could easily manipulate and control, in order to maximise profits. They even bankrolled the Russian Revolution in an attempt to enshrine these policies at international levels.

Don't forget, that it was J P Morgan, along with Edison, who set out to crush Westinghouse and Tesla whose innovations were threatening a number of prospective monopolies that they were developing. They largely succeeded in doing so. This is an historical lesson that the Free Software Community should be examining in considerable detail, because we are facing the same situation about a century later. I think we will lose, just like Westinghouse and Tesla did.

Entrepreneurs? Well, it depends on how you define the term. Back in the 1980's the Australian government was boasting about how their policies would encourage a new class of 'entrepreneurs' who would then prosper and 'save' the country. From my own experience in the musical business I reasoned that any 'entrepreneurs' that they found would simply grab as much wealth as was being offered and keep it. That was what happened.

Even at the most basic level, the hated agents, in the musical business, would always rush around all the venues and attempt to set up monopolies that they would then use to force all the bands into their own 'stable'. Then they would cut band earnings and keep all the money they extorted from the venues for themselves.

If you are using this term to define innovative business people with altruistic motives then that is an entirely different ball-game.

kiba's picture

kiba

13 years 47 weeks 5 days 11 hours ago

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Of course, I meant the

Of course, I meant the ethical entrepreneurs, not monopolists who destroy the free markets and demolish any kind of competition and cooperation in society.

I also agree with you on monopolies, as you can see in my signature. You can easily guess that I am against patent and copyright in general.
-----Signature----
*Copyright creates monopolies. Copyleft promote the free market.

*"Monopoly corrupts. Absolute monopoly corrupts absolutely"-- http://againstmonopoly.org

lozz's picture

lozz

13 years 47 weeks 5 days 6 hours ago

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kiba

No, I understood straight away that we were both defining the term from different perspectives.

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