On Thu, 28 Oct 2004, Carrol Cox wrote:
> This attempt to give political significance to open-source software
> seems to me simply bizarre; in fact, I think it shows the same sort of
> political despair that in other periods has been expressed, for example,
> in individual acts of terroism (like throwing bombs at presidents). It
> is grounded in the despairing hope that individual gestures will make a
> difference.
>
> Carrol
Look at it this way: Open source software is a major kick in the intellectual groin of economists who bloviate about the inherent superiority and efficiency of capitalist production motivated by personal profit. Open source software demonstrates that you don't need to rely on capitalism to effectively accomplish social goals (e.g., serving up web pages to the Internet using Apache). I agree that using open source software isn't effective political activity in and of itself, but the undeniable success of this overtly socialist form of economic activity is worth emphasizing in political discussions. (Case in point: my libertarian father in law, who decided to use Linux for his home network for a variety of practical reasons, now understands that socialism--in at least some situations--works fine. Breakthrough!)
Miles