Is Linux a "Socialist" Operating System?

[freedom1]

A buddy of mine (he's on here too) just threw this together. Good article.

http://ingeek.com/is-linux-a-socialist-o...ng-system/

Quote:Let me start by saying that open source is not a business model. It is a coding model. There is a plethora of commercial software firms that work with open source software. RedHat’s entire business is the Linux operating system. This coding model as opposed to the closed source coding model is simply another method of coding, one that increases competition within the marketplace just by being a new and innovative idea, with efficiency and quality as its ultimate goals.

Quote:So how is the open source coding model not socialist? Well, what is socialism? Mirriam Webster defines it as “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.”

The key word here is ownership. This word alone immediately renders the label of “socialist” completely invalid because by definition, any software licensed under the GPL or a similar license can not be “owned” by any single entity, collective or otherwise.

Quote:Socialism is a political system, one of government force. After all, collectivism if voluntary does not require a government that operates under a socialist system, or any other system for that matter. The open source movement is simply an instance of widely coordinated voluntary cooperation, and exists completely outside of the political landscape.

The developers of Linux are not forced to contribute. They simply donate their labor to various distributions. This is nothing more than charity, which has absolutely nothing to do with socialism, as socialism is a political system, not a descriptor for the ways in which humans interact of their own free will.