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[RedZezz]

I am curious as to what comrades think about this RSA video. What are the impications, if any, to socialist thought?

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[PC LOAD LETTER]

Many people have long understood that the Open Source movement ... specifically Linux and other software covered by the GNU General Public License ... are exercises in socialism and a gift economy. As mentioned in the video.

Look what these people have created. Linux turned 20 years old on October 5th ... earlier this month. It's incredible. Thousands and thousands of pieces of software ... given away for free. An entire operating system ... given away for free ... more stable and more secure than the leading competitor. Better, by a huge degree, than the operating system created by people who are being paid $60,000 per year in order to be a code monkey (pejorative in the software world).

However, it is a misconception that everyone who works on Linux is doing it for free. Some companies do pay their employees to work on, say, the kernel ... and patch and improve other sets of software related to Linux like the GNU utilities that make up the userland of the OS (what you interact with) ... because they directly benefit from Linux being good. Like Red Hat. Or Google. However, that's a fairly recent phenomenon. Until the last few years it was rare for anyone to be paid to contribute to Linux.

When anyone says nobody will be motivated in a socialist world sans money ... point to the open source movement.