11 May 98 Users have been banding together in user groups, on bulletin board systems, and across the Internet to share experiences, help each other, and freely collaborate on projects of mutual interest for many years. But so-called proprietary environments including VMS, MVS, and MacOS have not been left out. It is certainly fair to say that Unix has taken the idea of freely available software the furthest. When programmers on the Internet can read, redistribute, and modify the source for a piece of software, it evolves.
People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs.
And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing. 1 Thanks to Linux, Perl, Apache, and similar tools, everyone who wants to participate in the experience of building, decorating, and living in a bold new edifice can do so. It is not surprising that members of this community believe they have something special going for them. But whatever the merits of open source, an insular, anti-capitalist strain runs through its philosophical justifications. No where is this clearer than in respect to Microsoft.