Software wants to be free

Courtesy of Nicholas Carr, I saw this article "There is no Open Source Community"  by John Mark Walker. It is bound to bring out vigorous debate in the open and free software communities - but they are used to such healthy debate.

The article is all over the place -frankly the title is provocative but not indicative of the breadth of the article. I would read it for 2 reasons. One is to if you want to quick overview on the history of the movement and its philosophies. Second, I thought it was fascinating how he describes how software tools, education etc are becoming endemic around the world thanks to the Internet.

Software vendors and technology services firms (western and offshore vendors) can either view this as the glass is half full, or half empty. Growing software resources all over the world - cheaper raw material. But their buyers can just easily avail of these resources.  They do not have to go the cathedral, they can themselves shop in the bazaar.

Software, like information, wants to be free  .....