To me open-source fits neatly into Graeber’s idea of “basic communism”. He notes that all people are basic communists, in the sense that if the need is great e

To me open-source fits neatly into Graeber’s idea of “basic communism”. He notes that all people are basic communists, in the sense that if the need is great enough, and the cost of giving is small enough, all people recognise the correctness of communistic exchange. Software is incredibly cheap to copy, share, and distribute, and once you’ve built it to solve your problem it can equally serve as a solution to the problems of others. It’s non-exclusionary. There’s also the sense that open-source software is publicly owned, which is a key feature of socialist societies.