Over the course of the last two decades, many quality computer programs have been released under various free software and open-source software licenses. In an effort to understand how such a thing was possible, essayists raised in the traditional quid pro quo ethic have proposed various imaginative explanations that range in accuracy from almost-right to mostly-wrong. I, for one, would prefer that the general public not think of people who choose to write free software as visionary philanthropists or the unwitting victims of corporate exploitation.

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The High-Stakes View of Free Software Development

Free software has long been celebrated by some as

“a highly effective vehicle for the transfer of wealth from the industrialized world to developing countries”
— How the Tech-Poor Can Still Be Software-Rich

and denounced by others as

“a transfer of wealth from the programmers who created it to the corporations who use it without payment”
— Support for open source software is based on several misconceptions

But all of this high-stakes talk can give people the wrong idea.

A Look at Stoked-High Free Software Developers

Actually, a lot of free software is produced for the noblest of reasons: it pleases the programmers who write it. In support of my claim, I hereby present the following list of CPAN modules:

Lingua::Tolkien::BURL
an Orkish scripting language
Acme::MetaSyntactic::lotr
The Lord of the Rings theme
Date::Tolkien::Shire
implementation of the calendar used by the Hobbits (via Stefan)
DateTime::Fiction::JRRTolkien::Shire
(re-)implementation of the calendar used by the Hobbits

What, I wonder, might the capital value of this software be to someone in a developing country or to a corporation looking for code it can use without payment?

An Exotic Species Whose High-Latitude Habitat Is Endangered

When I think of free software hackers, I think of the so-called birds of paradise — each indulging in its uncommon, seemingly gratuitous [1] display of beauty and grace [2] simply because it is possible.

The comparison to these animals, several species of which are on the brink of extinction, is not capricious: ultimately, programmers write free software not only because they like it, but also because – despite the relentless lobbying and legal maneuvering of some corporations, and thanks to the tireless vigilance of some organizations [3] – they still can.

Slowly-but-surely, the times are indeed a-changing; let's not forget why.
Frame capture from the Byrds' «The Times, They Are A-Changing»

[1] I know, I know: Eric Raymond claims that our exotic plumage and behavior (like the birds') are actually the product of natural selection and, not coincidentally, improve our chances of mating well, often, or at all. OMG! Does that mean I can hack my way to evolutionary fitness? Sweet! *hack* *hack* *hack* *hack*. Uh… no.

[2] I am talking about the "beauty and grace" to be found in program source code, of course; the free software programmers themselves can be as hard to find in broad daylight as the aforementioned Paradisaeidae! [See the foregoing endnote for a possible explanation and an egregious example of FAIL.]

[3] Here are, in no particular order, some of the organizations that make it possible for hackers to continue writing free software:

Now would be a fine time to show your support.

This article was originally published as an entry in my Advogato diary.