Before last year, I was primarily focused in the technology world.
“pingui” by roberto noe diaz is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
My primary focus was Linux systems, which had been my platform of choice since the late 1990s. Hand in hand with Linux is the Open Source/Free Software cultures.
The Linux Kernel was begun by Linus Torvalds as a college student. His decision to create it as a project distributed for free under the GNU General Public License (GPL) opened the door to it becoming the dominating force in technology.
Linux operates at the core of Android phones, a large percentage of set top boxes, other small electronics, and even within some cars.
If Microsoft ever does applications for Linux it means I’ve won.
— Linus Torvalds
Android itself is an Open Source project. If you want to put in the effort, you can install a custom version of Android on some phones, allowing you to remove all of Google’s built in services, replacing them with Open Source applications.
Large corporations have since bought into the Open Source philosophy in their own drive to remove costs from within the business. In the technology world, Open Source has won, with most online services building from a Linux core.
Microsoft loves Linux.
— Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
Today I’m not approaching from a technology perspective, but instead a societal one.
I don’t think people understand the impact of the Open Source movement. What it has enabled.
Computing power is cheap. You can buy it in bulk over the internet, or for $35-$50 you can run a fairly powerful server out of your home over your existing internet access.
With the purchase of a Raspberry Pi, or just by reallocating some old hardware, you can run the most popular website content management system in the world for free. Wordpress itself uses any of the popular open source databases, and runs on various open source operating systems, of which Linux is the most common.
You can run this for $0 in license costs. Or you can choose to pay someone to manage it for you, enabling you to focus on your business, instead of on technology.
The barrier to entry for competing online these days is low in terms of software cost. You can start your project upon a firm base of well proven and supported technologies.
Uber, for example, uses Open Source software.
Open Source allowed them to step in and disrupt the taxi industry, and increased the competition for drivers, reducing costs. With this effort, they were able to get rich, and invest money in removing the drivers completely. Maximizing profitability with no concern for the people dependent upon jobs for survival.
Open Source lowers the barrier to entry though.
An open source platform for drivers could be operated locally without the overhead of expensive executives and investors who demand ever increasing profitability.
In many ways, Open Source developers seized the means of production when they saw the next evolution of industry.
Work will always be needed. Technology has made it easier for workers to connect with work.
Right now it often does this for the benefit of established capital. Open Source demonstrates a different collaborative path, just waiting for those with the technical skills to choose to work for better goals.
Creative Commons extends the same collaboration to other forms of creations, including 3D models which can be used to print real world objects.
In a world where production is controlled by the ownership of information, established power tries to own information, while individuals can choose to share instead.
Not government forced collaboration through Socialism, but a choice to collaborate so we can all reach higher. Collaboration for self-interest.
