Blogcritics: Comments on Open Source Software Stifles Innovation

Comment by Nelson

Tue, 13 Jul 2004 17:26:31 EDT

Sister, the internet was built on open source software, and that's the innovation that made innovations such as blogging possible. See The Origins and Future of Open Source Software. It's pure insanity to claim that open source software cannot be innovative. In fact, if you study computing history, at one point in time ALL software was open source, and we somehow managed to innovate back then. Given the better understanding of open source's strengths and weaknesses that we have today, there is no reason to suppose that we cannot be at least as innovative today as the pioneers of the digital age were.

Comment by Mark Saleski

Sun, 11 Jul 2004 15:24:33 EDT

when microsoft comes out with something that is: a) rock solid b) innovative then perhaps this argument will have some merit.

Comment by Anita Campbell

Sun, 11 Jul 2004 12:02:21 EDT

The gift economy is an "interesting" theory -- and just a theory. Capitalism and cold hard cash still make the world go around. The Soviets and the Chinese figured that out, although it took each of those societies a half century for their economic experiments to go down in flames.

Comment by Casper

Sun, 11 Jul 2004 09:49:51 EDT

To take some issue with the economic point of view, if you accept the concept that software is a Gift Economy (here, here or here), then it does make economic sense.