The Innovation Game
Innovation is a weasel word. It used to earn an honest living, but now it's been hijacked by marketing people for dishonest purposes. It's now in the same category as "rich". Does anyone now hear the words "rich user experience" or "rich client" without thinking of a bloated, Windows-only client that doesn't use open or standard protocols ?
Controlling the language like this is power. Whoever defines the words we use can control the way we think about things. Our knowledge of language limits how we can express our thoughts. Innovation these days is being used as a code word for large, corporate controlled research and development, regardless of any results it might produce.
People often criticize Free Software/Open Source for lack of innovation. This is usually expressed as a complaint that Free Software only copies existing proprietary software, and doesn't invent anything new. The historical reasons for this can be understood when you look at the origins of Free Software. When Richard Stallman created the Free Software Foundation and began the Free Software crusade, he was starting from scratch. Nothing existed, not even a compiler to create other Free Software programs. So one of his first tasks was to create such a compiler, which has become the modern gcc (GNU Compiler Collection).
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