Slashdot Mirror
Open Source Geeks Considered Modern Heroes
loconet writes "The BBC reports that a report by Demos says that the all-consuming passions of geeks and nerds may actually be beneficial for society. The UK think tank's report published today, underlines the importance of 'Pro-Ams' -- amateurs who pursue a hobby or pastime, in many cases an all-consuming passion, to a professional standard. The report says Pro-Am astronomers have made 'significant contributions' to the knowledge of the universe, while Pro-Am computer programmers are providing the only serious challenge to Microsoft's dominance of personal computing."
Open source geeks are just the programmers who can't get a job. Not necessarily a bad thing, as unemployed people have contributed many great things to society. But still, a huge quantity of those who develop open source only do so because they haven't much else to do.
WTF? -1 troll? How the hell is this a troll?
Aww, poor little nerd moderator couldn't take it when his idols weren't allowed to be heroes.
If you'd actually turn off Everquest for a few hours and leave mommy & daddy's basement, you might actually have a chance.
And wandering around a yahoo chat room asking "Are there any girls in here?" does not count as socializing.
And the last time I checked, my wife very much appreciated being married to a geek.