Open Source is big business and far from being free, let’s be honest, Matt at WP and Brad from Joomla makes a good living on their free work.

Open Source on both a free and commercial basis in the form of design elements and plugins and extensions and of course a responsive and convicted community does not hurt either.

It is exactly your point about self-sufficiency which I personally believe needs more practical attention. Developing more community channels through which individuals as well as our whole can manage economic realities more fully is something that, from what I see, could benefit from new ideas and energy. When someone like Matt creates a way for open source devs to generate income, I’m reminded of how few are doing this. My statements about political agendas are based on my belief that these often get in the way of a healthy community and economy.

I’ve enjoyed more than one post on your blog, and discovering that you are aware of how difficult it is to say anything without a political interpretation is a plus. Finding seemingly contradictory postions (according to the partisan norm) is one of the reasons I kept reading, since it indicated the possibility of an author giving a personal opinion based on some independent thought. That’s usually more important to me than whether or not I agree with the opinions expressed. It also tends to go hand in hand with respect for the opinions of others.

Fitting into neither the left nor the right wing stereotype happens to be a state of affairs I am familiar with. I’m too much about responsibility to embrace anarchy personally …my version of your great title might be ‘There Is No Government Like Self Government’.

I would say open source is also about art, and the artists — programmers — enjoy to display their talents. Programmers get to practice their craft in public and get better at it. There may be little money in open source per-se, but not in talent, that always gets paid. From that perspective, open source IS about community, but I don’t know about self-sufficiency. By its very nature, open source requires an interlocking community and ideas don’t happen in a vacuum.

Per my linked post in particular, I was picking on a governing body’s inability to distinguish between very basic concepts: servers and PCs to cast some doubt on their ability to decide on such matters. The topic was left a big hanging, so I may return with a follow-up. Basically, if open source is about merit, IT should not need a government to carve up their competition for them. Otherwise, I see closed-source/paid software and free-open-source as complementary, each with their own functions.

As for my blog being about anarchy, it is. It doesn’t fit well into either the left or right wing, so take it as it is