After the Software Wars

the long version

I dropped out of the University of Michigan at age 20 to become a programmer at Microsoft, and worked there for 11 years writing code in many different groups. After leaving, I tried out Linux, saw the potential, and studied the problems. This is what I discovered… Given currently available technology, we should already have cars that drive us around in absolute safety, leaving us to lounge comfortably in the back while sipping champagne. We have all the hardware – the video cameras, motion sensors and high powered computers – and we’ve had this technology for decades. So why don’t cars drive themselves? The answer is that we don’t have the software. The software that will accomplish this vision will not be built by corporations like Microsoft and Apple, who are actually impeding technological progress – it will be built by the global community. Free software is a bit like Wikipedia, which over 2.5 years grew from nothing into the world’s largest encyclopedia. Free software is better for the free market, as free speech is better for the free market.