The strange economics of open-source software (2015)
You know, for all of the people that complain about Communism&#x2F;Marxism&#x2F;Socialism -- Open Source Software, at the very least, <i>IS Communism, Marxism, Socialism -- in practice...</i><p>Disclaimer: I do not believe in the absoluteness of any &quot;ism&quot; (Communism&#x2F;Marxism&#x2F;Socialism, etc.), I believe in neutrality, that everything&#x27;s relative, and that &quot;There&#x27;s a time and a place for everything&quot; (You know, like that old  song by &quot;The Byrds&quot;: &quot;Turn!, Turn!, Turn!&quot;).<p>But, people who understand Open Source -- cannot deny the many ways that these &quot;Communist&#x2F;Marxist&#x2F;Socialist&quot; ideas<p><i>Have innumerably benefitted and helped and advanced our Capitalist economy...</i><p>Think of it this way, Silicon Valley wouldn&#x27;t be half of what it is today -- without Open Source...<p>If we didn&#x27;t have Open Source, we&#x27;d arguably be at least 10 years behind where we are today in the technological advancement curve...<p>I speak for no ideology...<p>I merely observe sometimes paradoxical truths...<p>(And yes, I think we all agree that Communism&#x2F;Marxism historically has not scaled well for Governments... but that&#x27;s a different non-Economic, non-Software discussion...)