[Gllug] An article for you from an Economist.com reader.

[Amias Channer]

On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 13:00:37 +0100
Richard Jones <rich at annexia.org> wrote:

> <rant>
> 
> I really wish that people would stop writing drivel equating free
> software with anti-capitalism.  Particularly, the Economist who really
> should know better.

/me takes the bait.
 
> Free software is *all* about capitalism.  It encourages competition
> and ruthlessly reduces costs.  This is why I can get a fully
> functional operating system + office suite today for pennies.  And
> when it breaks, I have a selection of experts at hand competing with
> each other to minimize the price to fix it.  I can pass the savings
> I've made on to my customers, in turn reducing their costs and
> increasing wealth.

But we aren't competing with each other we are co-operating , there are
many companies operating in simiar fields but unlike conventional
capitalism each has its niche and shares code and knowledge with its competitors.
It is very difficult for a company to achive monopoly status in the open source
world due to the vast numbers of people envolved and rapid pace of change.
Free software is free in two ways , as in beer and as in speach.

Your example would seem to me to be a mostly money free sharing based
transaction which i would say is inherently anti-capitalist. 

the fact that it makes sense in a capitalist world is , IMHO , testimony
to how well designed and though-out the concept is .

> The opposite would be some sort of communist centralized command-
> and-control economy, where the government enforces a monopoly position
> and as a result prices are not driven down and people never become
> better off.  Now whom does _that_ remind you of?

s/communist/capitalist/

Capitalism isn't really about competition , its acutally about monopoly.
You win as a capitalist by securing your market not sharing it with
others. Also capitalist activities usually focus on much more short term
activities than the average open-source project.

Capitalism relies on an entity capturing what people want and providing
it on their own terms .

That situation reminds me entirely of microsoft who are most definately
capitalists. They have created and defended their monopoly above all
other activies , including writing decent code and have only given
products away when they want to capture a new market.

Capitalism is more than just having money , its more about how you use it.

Toodle-pip
Amias
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