Re: <nettime> R.I.P.: The Counterculture Aura of Linux

[andy@remotelinux.com]

On Sat, 29 May 2004, Martin Hardie wrote:

> I was sent this article last week, it appeared in the NT Times and it may
> be of interest to you all. On my copy I have written - capture, control,
> command, constituted, external causes.... as notes when I go back to it to
> reread it and see what I can make of it...
> 
> At first glance and I will have to reread it I am thinking that one of the
> great things of Linux i.e. the appearance of collective/communal
> authorship/an example of communal immaterial labour is with this and other
> moves proceeding towards a slow death. But then I may be wrong. I would
> like to be told why ....
> 

I cordially disagree.  Collective author/ownership has been occurring
since at least hunter gatherer societies and tangibly since the Kama Sutra
and wrt computer codes, since the 1960's.The largest distribution of
GNU/Linux happens to be completely free and was measured as the fastest
growing distro (as posted on a recent slashdot post), Debian.  But beyond
that, GNU/Linux is a bridge, not a destination.  At this point I'm more
interested in post-Linux operating systems like Hurd and l4 maturation.  
But what about GNU (collective if you prefer) inspired
www.openhardware.net ? I reckon open source hardware will push Intel and
the like, in the position of Microsoft compared to Linux much sooner then
we expect.

And how about the GNU Free Documentation License for collaborative
documentation, books, poetry?

I mean, even Apple Corporation of all people is enlisting the aid of
community developers to launch OS X.

A personal favorite of mine is www.linuxbios.org, free bios replacements
that have even booted Windows!

While the corporate mind-shift of Linux on a whole has changed with IBM
marketing dollars, the fact that Linux is, and will remain, revolutionary
is akin to Marx speaking of a permanent revolution: where one field of
struggle has been conquered the battlespace is to export to related fields
across a global level until horizontally deployed in vertical
applications.  I may hold more conservative (in my book anyhow) views then
most GNU supporters, but once put in motion, I don't see where a limit on
anti-authoritarian method of operations can be placed.

The mentioned voucher system to ensure originality of submitted code is a
defensive aim at the likes of SCO and future challenges to the GPL from
being hijacked for a profit at the expense of the community.

Bests,
Andy



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