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> Has anyone considered that open source / free software is just fundamentally incompatible with capitalism? Legions, many of which have only recently become a

> Has anyone considered that open source / free software is just fundamentally incompatible with capitalism? Legions, many of which have only recently become aware of Free Software or Open Source. As far as Free Software is concerned, there is no problem with capitalism. It's only about guarding the software freedoms of the users of software. "Free" as in "free market", not as in "free lunch".

wvenable 7y ago
I understand that Free Software is not concerned with capitalism but that doesn't address the question. Free Software can still be incompatible with capitalism even if it doesn't address it directly. If you release your software with a Free Software license do you really "own" it in a capitalistic sense? I'm thinking no. As a consequence it's actually hard to make money with Free Software. But that difficulty and lack of ownership hasn't prevented Free Software from thriving, in fact, just the opposite.
- craigsmansion 7y ago
  Depends on one's definition of "capitalism" when applied to software I think. Whereas I would not "own" the software, I would own the hours I'm willing to write software. As things are I can't freely sell those hours because of a monopoly on many programs, that is, no user can hire me to improve their proprietary software. I can only sell my hours to users of Free Software. Now we have software "ownership" against the workings of a free market. Both of these are generally considered "capitalist", so it depends on your definition which is "more capitalist", but I hope it's clear that neither of them is strictly capitalist where the other is not.
  - wvenable 7y ago
    You make a very good point. At issue here is that the developer is not selling their time. They're putting in that time for free. And then they want to recover that income after the fact. This is traditionally how any kind of product is developed. You put in time and resources into a product and you sell that product to recoup that cost and hopefully make a profit as well. If you don't own/control the software, due to it being Free Software, then that whole avenue of income generation is not available or very difficult. Time and again, we see individuals and companies trying to find a way to sell Free Software like traditional software.

wvenable 7y ago

I understand that Free Software is not concerned with capitalism but that doesn't address the question. Free Software can still be incompatible with capitalism even if it doesn't address it directly. If you release your software with a Free Software license do you really "own" it in a capitalistic sense? I'm thinking no. As a consequence it's actually hard to make money with Free Software. But that difficulty and lack of ownership hasn't prevented Free Software from thriving, in fact, just the opposite.

craigsmansion 7y ago
Depends on one's definition of "capitalism" when applied to software I think. Whereas I would not "own" the software, I would own the hours I'm willing to write software. As things are I can't freely sell those hours because of a monopoly on many programs, that is, no user can hire me to improve their proprietary software. I can only sell my hours to users of Free Software. Now we have software "ownership" against the workings of a free market. Both of these are generally considered "capitalist", so it depends on your definition which is "more capitalist", but I hope it's clear that neither of them is strictly capitalist where the other is not.
- wvenable 7y ago
  You make a very good point. At issue here is that the developer is not selling their time. They're putting in that time for free. And then they want to recover that income after the fact. This is traditionally how any kind of product is developed. You put in time and resources into a product and you sell that product to recoup that cost and hopefully make a profit as well. If you don't own/control the software, due to it being Free Software, then that whole avenue of income generation is not available or very difficult. Time and again, we see individuals and companies trying to find a way to sell Free Software like traditional software.