> Egalitarian means giving everyone an equal starting point free of cultural background. What is a 'starting point'? Open source certainly doesn't provide equa

> Egalitarian means giving everyone an equal starting point free of cultural background. What is a 'starting point'? Open source certainly doesn't provide equal starting points, because each individual is evaluated on merit, the acquisition of which is often tied to social and economic background. Conferences don't provide equal starting points, for the same reason. > Egalitarianism and meritocracy are not mutually exclusive nor orthogonal. They are orthogonal. An egalitarian meritocratic society would give each member equal opportunity to achieve, but would judge the achievements of each member according to their merit. Open source only concerns itself (like any sane organization whose mission is not social advancement) with merit, not with egalitarian questions of how merit was acquired.