> reputation within the "community". The success of the internet proves
> that this collectivist model of software development not only works, but
> seems to work better than the traditional 50s model of software as
> intellectual property to be sold like it is some physical asset. Even
> traditional legacy behemoths like IBM have caught onto the open-source
> craze and have announced support for linux.
What's the chance that the freeware movement will spread, virus-like, into the hardware biz? After all, even the simplest computer tech nowadays is the product of huge amounts of brainpower. Or is this the point of Transmeta, to create freeware CPUs? I sometimes wonder if all these local informatic socialisms are the flip side of a certain keiretsu socialism -- the vast cooperative social and trading networks of the Pacific Rim, which seem to be at least holding their own against Wall Street's legions of doom.
-- Dennis