I am a capitalist pig. Capitalism enables liberty. The free market system encourages efficient evolution of companies. But movements in the internet realm have made me consider the benefits of socialism.
Open source systems are accessible to everyone. Any person may dig into the code and alter to their heart’s content. Open source systems are set up to be easily extensible. The community that evolves around them creates plug-ins to extend the system’s capabilities. The complete open source system,, plug-ins and all, is then freely available for anyone to use.
Firefox is an open source web browser. The browser began as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project. Firefox founders believed the Netscape browser suffered from sponsor-driven feature creep that compromised the utility of the Netscape browser. Firefox is their effort at a stand-alone browser to counter the problems. It is the web browser of choice for web designers. Not only because it does a good job following web standards. But also because one of its plug-ins, Firebug, is an indispensable tool for diagnosing issues during site setup and testing.
WordPress, my content management system of choice, is an open source platform. WordPress was originally developed as a blog publishing application. But it has proven to be equally capable in the content management system role, especially with the extensions available. It has a a vast community that has developed more than 6,800 plug-ins. WordPress is used by 202 million websites worldwide.
Many open source projects are better than their commercial counterparts. The for-mentioned Firefox is a far better browser than Internet Explorer. The two open source content management systems I am familiar with, Drupal and WordPress, are better than commercial variants. In fact, I switched web technologies mid-stream because I realized I could provide a better website for less money using the open source options.
Open source systems are often better due to their large communities. With commercial systems, a small team works on the project. The project will reflect the preferences of that small group. The commercial systems are limited in their roles and capabilities as there is only so much the small group can do. The large communities behind the open source projects do not have the small group limitations. And they are able to find and fix bugs faster because of the vast amount of eyes.
I still believe in capitalism’s role. However, I now think micro-socialist networks can actually work in support of capitalism. Specifically, in the internet realm, the open source communities work together to make the best possible system. Individuals then take what the community has made and tailor it to client’s needs.
Open source systems are accessible to everyone. Any person may dig into the code and alter to their heart’s content. Open source systems are set up to be easily extensible. The community that evolves around them creates plug-ins to extend the system’s capabilities. The complete open source system,, plug-ins and all, is then freely available for anyone to use.
Firefox is an open source web browser. The browser began as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project. Firefox founders believed the Netscape browser suffered from sponsor-driven feature creep that compromised the utility of the Netscape browser. Firefox is their effort at a stand-alone browser to counter the problems. It is the web browser of choice for web designers. Not only because it does a good job following web standards. But also because one of its plug-ins, Firebug, is an indispensable tool for diagnosing issues during site setup and testing.
WordPress, my content management system of choice, is an open source platform. WordPress was originally developed as a blog publishing application. But it has proven to be equally capable in the content management system role, especially with the extensions available. It has a a vast community that has developed more than 6,800 plug-ins. WordPress is used by 202 million websites worldwide.
Many open source projects are better than their commercial counterparts. The for-mentioned Firefox is a far better browser than Internet Explorer. The two open source content management systems I am familiar with, Drupal and WordPress, are better than commercial variants. In fact, I switched web technologies mid-stream because I realized I could provide a better website for less money using the open source options.
Open source systems are often better due to their large communities. With commercial systems, a small team works on the project. The project will reflect the preferences of that small group. The commercial systems are limited in their roles and capabilities as there is only so much the small group can do. The large communities behind the open source projects do not have the small group limitations. And they are able to find and fix bugs faster because of the vast amount of eyes.
I still believe in capitalism’s role. However, I now think micro-socialist networks can actually work in support of capitalism. Specifically, in the internet realm, the open source communities work together to make the best possible system. Individuals then take what the community has made and tailor it to client’s needs.
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