3.1. The Hacker Community as a Gift Culture
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Due to the fact that computers are very cheap, common and powerful, the
open-source hackers culture is essentially a "gift culture", as Anthropologists
refer to it.
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Such a culture does not have a lack of resources, and its members do not need
to struggle to survive.
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Instead, they are trying to increase their peer repute (which is by no means
fame!), and so are trying to make better impressions on their
peers.
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This is done by producing or working on important open-source programs, which
are distributed without charge.
Written by Shlomi Fish