Linux and FOSS Are Not Selfish

[sffvba[e0rt]

Linus Torvalds won the Millennium Technology Prize, a prestigious and well-deserved award. And then he told the BBC that Linux succeeded thanks to selfishness and trust. Linus is far too prominent to not be challenged for such an insulting, inaccurate characterization. Characterizing the motivations of FOSS contributors "selfish" is wrong, and here is why.

Source (http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/168555/)

Pretty well said.


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[Simian Man]

I agree with Linus. Open source succeeds due to selfishness. When you are making software for yourself, an open source license is best because it allows others to help you improve your code. Software that people write for themselves tends to be better because they are passionate about it and are their own users. This article is using "selfish" as a value word. Just because something is done for selfish motives doesn't make it bad.

[sffvba[e0rt]

I think it's totally fine to be selfish. What is important is the motive behind that selfishness. In fact, all of us are selfish and no matter how 'selfless' our deeds are, they are driven by selfishness.

Source (http://www.muktware.com/3695/linux-and-foss-are-extremely-selfish-its-ok-be-selfish)

Got to love word ping-pong...


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[MisterGaribaldi]

Heh... I read the article and was going to say something about its author and/or Linus Torvalds being students of Ayn Rand, but it looks like someone else on there thought about it first. Drat!

[drawkcab]

If Linus is a student of Ayn Rand then I've lost respect for him. :(

[Mikeb85]

I think selfish may have been a poor choice of wording (he might have used it for shock value), but he's right in the sense that most developers aren't doing it out of charity, or for any sort of 'common good', but because of a need or want... Open source moves us past the point of software becoming a 'product', now it's simply an enabler to do more things, look at the amount of tech companies who provide services, the proliferation of the 'cloud', etc...

[thatguruguy]

I think if the person who wrote the rebuttal had actually read what Linus Torvalds had said, she would have understood what he meant, and would have known it wasn't meant as an "insult." Although I acknowledge that some people are always expecting to be insulted, and read everything through that filter.

[jockyburns]

I knew a chap about 10yrs ago who worked on Linux development. Unpaid and in his spare time. He bought video cards, sound cards, graphics cards etc and wrote code for these to work with his computer. All the items he bought were eventually given away to local schoolkids/ computer enthusiasts. He spent hours coding , testing and modifying,. All in his spare time.
Now if that's selfish, then I reckon I must be the Pope.