Time to regulate the software industry?

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I think this has now changed.

And I don't think that the DOJ vs. Microsoft affair had anything to do with this, in reality. Ever since IBM released the specs on the PC platform and programming tools started to become available to us Great Unwashed Masses of "non-professionals," it was only inevitable that a culture of Resolute Do-It-Yourselfism would eventually take hold and flourish, apart from any great commercial backing. I ask: given the do-it-yourself nature of the PC and the take-your -own-destiny-by-the-horns nature of the American psyche, how could it not happen that eventually Just Average Joes (and Janes, who often hit the Glass Ceiling in Business yet have skill sets just as good as the Joes) would start developing their own OSs and applications independently of the Establishment? I could draw some great analogies and parallels here between the place of the Western Pioneer/Cowboy in American popular culture and the whole Open Source thing. We embrace the lonely but resourceful outsider and deeply indentify with the resolute underdog who overcomes despite all odds.

True, this current incarnation originated in Europe, but we've embraced this computerdom do-it-yourselfism probably more than any other culture that I'm aware of.

Indeed, I can't understand anyone who doesn't sit down for 10 seconds at a computer and immediately be overcome with the urge to want to pop the hood and learn intimately what makes the rascal tick. And I don't want to sign up to some Mystical High Priesthood in order to do it, or be told how and for whom I can do it. I'm an American Average Joe, and we don't work that way.

I may in a minority, to be sure--but a minority of millions of do-it-yourselfers who will happily go about writing our own code and sharing it with other do-it-yourselfers, whether Big Business approves of this or not. When you reflect for even a moment on the history and culture of the personal computer, how can you not come to the conclusion that the ultimate tool for personal expression for Just Us Folks Out Here wouldn't be pushed eventually to its logical conclusion? This explains the whole Open Source and Linux phenomena perfectly.

And, I contend, the whole flow of this scenario greatly mimics the flow of evolution of life on this planet, in my view. The parallels are very striking to me. Just as life seems to have absolutely had to have happened given the conditions on Earth, the emergence of Open Source seems to be the inevitable effect of a cause produced by the IBM PC.

Agree with me or not, I'm having an awful lot of fun observing the evolution.

Posted by: Yen_z   Posted on: 02/17/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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