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For four years I worked as a Visual Basic programmer. I got fed up with Windoze. I now use GNU/Linux. The migration from Gates to GNU is not, at root, technologically driven. It is more to do with the search for meaning in my life, becoming a father, having the support of a loving partner and stumbling across Buddhism.
The Hacker Ethic by Pekka Himanen describes the open-source community and its' values. Here are some quotes from Pekka's book. Firstly, a brief description of the open-source model of software developement...
Generally speaking, this open-source model can be described as follows: it all begins with a problem or goal that someone finds personally significant. That person may release just the problem or goal itself, but usually he or she will also provide a solution. In the open model, a recipient has the right to freely use, test and develop this Solution. This is possible only if the information that has lead to the solution (the source) has been passed on with it. In the open-source model, the release of these rights entails two obligations: these same rights have to be passed on when the origional Solution or its refined version is shared, and the contributors must always be credited when either version is shared. (p67)
What strikes me about many open-source projects is their quality. People really give a damn about what they are doing. There are no big advertising budgets. Products simply stand or fall on their merits. I like that. Quality wins, big money ads are irrelevant. High quality, low budget, lots of enthusiasm.
There is a great difference between choosing a field of study or answering a want ad on the basis of maximizing income and first considering what one really would like to do with one's life and only then pondering how to make that financially possible. (p53)
How can low/no budget open-source compete with the big corporates ? I think it boils down to sharing the source. This creates an atmosphere in which people learn from each other. I mean learn in the pro-active sense. Not a certified sponge school of learning !
Once again, this hacker model resembles Plato's Academy, where students were not regarded as targets for knowledge transmission but were referred to as companions in learning. In the Academy's view, the central task of teaching was to strengthen the learner's ability to pose problems, develop lines of thought, and present criticism. (p75)
I have been sent dizzy by the apparent speed at which some companies operate. The struggle to survive in the global market can create a dysfunctional working environment in which nothing of any *real* value is produced.
One might say that there is an "ethics barrier", a speed above which ethics can no longer exist. After that point, the only remaining goal is to survive the immediate moment. (p131)
