Why Linux is Not Socialism

The claim is made from time to time that Linux is Socialism in action. The point of the project is to have a free and open source operating that many contribute to that is available to everyone for free. The concept of sharing and community effort in many people's minds brings up the basic concept of Socialism. But is Linux really Socialism or is it something else?

If Linux was developed in a Socialist society, those in power would have extracted the money to hire the man power to start programming the operating system. The money in the form of taxation would not be voluntary. The direction of the project would be formulated by those in power. There wouldn't be a community of programmers working independently on a project as they please but employees hired by the government for a specific purpose. Once this process was done the combined efforts of the taxes and labor would be shared with everyone under that government.

Linux is not Socialism because of one main factor. Everyone who contributed their efforts towards the project did so voluntarily. No one had to pay taxes towards the project. No one had to comply to a government giving away their time and labor in order to avoid being put in jail for not doing what the government said. If it's not a top down effort forced by government, it's not Socialism.

The benefits and sharing are the only part of Linux that looks like Socialism as a political theory. It's actually more of an example of free market capitalism as people took their capital which gave them the free time to have hobbies to program for fun.

These political terms might be semantics as well. What's more important to realize is that sharing has always been part of human society and always will be. Sharing precedes Socialistic theory.