“The problem with Red Hat and VA Linux Systems going commercial
is that Linux has its living roots deep in the hacker’s philosophy.
It thrives because its makers aren’t looking for money. They’re not
looking to have their piece of software dominate over others, and
spread to the outer reaches of the software community. That’s an
absolutely ridiculous way of thinking in the mindset of the hacker.
We have a deep love of programming and want to help contribute to
this beautiful community.”
“What is beautiful about the community? It arises from the
simple motivation to please our peers and the users of our
software. We evolve together rather than against each other. You
can have a dozen different pieces of the same type of software, and
nearly each will have its own following. For those that don’t,
they’re either improved until they do, or they fade away. It’s how
our software evolves.”
“If we add marketing to the picture, then our hacker’s utopia
will become contaminated. With commercialization, one starts
dealing with money and then greed and envy, along with competition.
We will become the opposite of what our ideals are, and end up
where we don’t want to go.”