I’ve just been sat here this Saturday morning talking to my other half about politics (strange, I know).
It’s starting to strike me more and more that open source software development is rooted in socialism and communism (I hate labelling things, but in this case I think it’s the most simple way of illustrating the point).
You can almost predict that there is going to be a “drawing of a line in the sand” at some point in the not too distant future… the likes of Microsoft will start using the “Unamerican” tag to try and slow down the open source (read:gnu-linux) bandwagon.
Here’s the rub - open source software is a form of communism, and it hilights why (when arranged properly), communism and socialism are the best model. I think I’m paraphrasing here, but the general basis of both political ideologies is “those who can help, give” - and they do so as a matter of course - not in response to any appeals.
The problem is teaching a whole generation in particular countries (yes, America, I do mean you) that communism and socialism are not bad, evil, or in any way dangerous. At the same time, those people will also need to realise how much they have been manipulated by their own media (and, to a lesser extend their educational system), and that their historic enemies (Russia) were never really communist. They probably more accurately “dictatorship” systems with a corrupt top level - much like China and North Korea.
Heavy thoughts for a saturday morning…