Kent Beck's "Economic Nonsense"
Kent Beck did a talk at OSCon about Open Source as economic nonsense.
Shows Maslow's hierarchy of needs: survival, love, ... self-actualization. But I think he misinterprets it. Maslow indicates that beyond a certain point, getting more money (food, housing, etc)
The market for software is incredibly distorted. If you do something innovative, there's a big company north of here that will just squash you. Open source is a way of saying "hey, we're just not going to play this game."
I think I agree. Possibly if Microsoft declines and we get a more competitive and functional software market then the pressure for open source would decline a bit too. Microsoft like to talk about ecosystems; Linux in part is a reaction to that.
Reckons open source goes against trend towards accountability.
But open source also empowers users, letting them both get in touch with developers and also take control of things if they don't trust the developers.
If you're not getting enough accountability for free, pay money. Get HP or Red Hat premium support.
The whole thing is a bit like the argument that it's physically impossible for a bumblebee to fly. Satisfying yourself that you proved this doesn't make bumblebees fall out of the sky. It just indicates a problem in your theory.
Why does OS seem to work? We live in a land of plenty; people are willing to sacrifice basic needs to get higher needs met.
I think the core falacy here is that everything ought to reduce to money. Money is fine. However, making the maximum money is almost nobody's goal: people spend money on random things they enjoy, rather than saving every cent. People spend time goofing off in the evening when they could be working a second job.
People spend excess energy on programming rather than art, sports, community groups, poker, etc.
Well, true. Some people prefer programming to playing soccer. It's not for Kent Beck to say how people should spend their time.
Want to see whole people working whole jobs: both financially and spiritually rewarding. Options: sponsorship, patronage, pay-per-use, licensing, complements.
Well, balance is good. But if you can't get a perfect job, then it's a reasonable tradeoff to have a slightly tedious job and to do something more fun on evenings and weekends.
Money is a way of attracting people to do jobs they wouldn't do otherwise. That's why they call it money.
posted Sat 31 Jul 2004 in /software/freedom | link
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