It is interesting to consider Linux Development, as well as Internet
and Web development, from the point of view of Socialism vs Libertarian.
Look at Star Trek, The Next Generation. With their replicators taking
care of all of their needs, are they socialist, communist, or capitalist?
Linux is, in some way, a prototype "economy", and the internet is, in
some way, a prototype "government / society" like some utopian model.
But I think that misses something, a different model, one of
self-organization.
When something is available for essentially nothing but a little
dusting off, what is the economic model? What was the economic model in
the Eden Epoch, a time of higher global temperature when food grew more
abundantly than now? If there was essentially no need for an "economy" in
our present sense, what need is there for government? Going back to Star
Trek, how does one then hold a Star Fleet together? Tradition?
Restriction of exploration? Or simply being the only organization of a
scale large enough to explore? Is a set of rules, or ethics, enough to
self-assemble a Star Fleet out of abundance and free will?
Is the lack of visible large scale organization, as well as highly
developed arts and crafts in the Eden Epoch, then related to
over-abundance?
Or is it closer to the Viral assembly model, where the definition of
clear interface standards essentially allows a virus to self-assemble out
of what are in a sense random impacts? (And allows for the rapid
evolution by combining different modules, as we see in the periodic
strains of Flu.)
So when we look at Linux, and the Internet, does the abundance and
free distribution then mean that formal top-down structure is not
essential? Or does it imply that in order to advance beyond this level,
structure must be generated to order development beyond some scale?
It seems to me, that from all the models I have run across, the viral
self assembly model is the closest to what I have seen. Linux is a viral
phenomenon, with the standards being the DNA (or actually RNA) that allow
it to self-assemble.
It also implies that if MS is to destroy Linux, as was implied by the
Halloween memo, MS must act against the RNA -- and we must watch our RNA,
our standards, to see that it does not extend them in ways incompatible
with our self assembly. That is exactly what they are trying to do in
their extend and encompass methodology with respect to perverting
standards to their own ends.
- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----------------------------
-------- MS asks "Where do you want to go?" -------
------- Linux asks "What do you want to do?" ------
-- It is doers, not goers, who built this world! --
--------- Member: http://www.svlug.org/ -----------
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