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Coase's Penguin, Or, Linux and the Nature of the Firm [pdf]

https://www.benkler.org/CoasesPenguin.PDF
15•loughnane•1mo ago

Comments

w10-1•1mo ago
This is the 2002 law article, before the 2006 book on networks that reflected early interest in network effects, arguing that open-source is an emergent mode of production. The same analysis could arguably be applied to the creator or influencer economy. It aged well.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yochai_Benkler
But he adopting the techniques of transaction cost economics (TCE) while at the same time posing straw man TCE claims (e.g., that TCE says there are only integrated firms and markets). TCE says transaction costs matter most in determining economies of transactions at high scale, and its methods can show how a broad variety of costs end up shaping activity and institutions. It also explains which innovations are disruptive (surprise: they change the transaction costs) and thus how digitalization has had such a huge impact so quickly.

The TCE analysis has become second nature in business strategy, but surprisingly rare in policy circles, its intended audience.

And his analysis in hindsight is a bit wishful. Roughly speaking, while open-source reduces coordination costs, it doesn't reduce the underlying complexity. The big open-source projects get that way through major corporate sponsorship, and they run with very clear dictatorial/oligarchic or bureaucratic decision-making if they evolve.

One of the principles of TCE methodology is to compare not ideal with real, but two actual and viable forms of organization. In this case he's projected ideal benefits without any of the real costs. That was forgivable in 2002 or even 2006, but it would be malpractice now.

Tiny C Compiler

https://bellard.org/tcc/
141•guerrilla•5h ago•63 comments

Show HN: LocalGPT – A local-first AI assistant in Rust with persistent memory

https://github.com/localgpt-app/localgpt
20•yi_wang•1h ago•4 comments

SectorC: A C Compiler in 512 bytes

https://xorvoid.com/sectorc.html
222•valyala•9h ago•42 comments

Speed up responses with fast mode

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/fast-mode
128•surprisetalk•8h ago•138 comments

Software factories and the agentic moment

https://factory.strongdm.ai/
161•mellosouls•11h ago•319 comments

OpenCiv3: Open-source, cross-platform reimagining of Civilization III

https://openciv3.org/
896•klaussilveira•1d ago•273 comments

Brookhaven Lab's RHIC concludes 25-year run with final collisions

https://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/brookhaven-labs-rhic-concludes-25-year-run-with-final-collis...
51•gnufx•7h ago•52 comments

Stories from 25 Years of Software Development

https://susam.net/twenty-five-years-of-computing.html
145•vinhnx•12h ago•16 comments

Hoot: Scheme on WebAssembly

https://www.spritely.institute/hoot/
170•AlexeyBrin•14h ago•30 comments

Show HN: Craftplan – Elixir-based micro-ERP for small-scale manufacturers

https://puemos.github.io/craftplan/
15•deofoo•4d ago•3 comments

FDA intends to take action against non-FDA-approved GLP-1 drugs

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-intends-take-action-against-non-fda-appro...
83•randycupertino•4h ago•167 comments

First Proof

https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.05192
110•samasblack•11h ago•70 comments

Vocal Guide – belt sing without killing yourself

https://jesperordrup.github.io/vocal-guide/
282•jesperordrup•19h ago•92 comments

Show HN: I saw this cool navigation reveal, so I made a simple HTML+CSS version

https://github.com/Momciloo/fun-with-clip-path
62•momciloo•9h ago•12 comments

Al Lowe on model trains, funny deaths and working with Disney

https://spillhistorie.no/2026/02/06/interview-with-sierra-veteran-al-lowe/
93•thelok•11h ago•20 comments

The F Word

http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2026/02/friction.html
104•zdw•3d ago•52 comments

Show HN: A luma dependent chroma compression algorithm (image compression)

https://www.bitsnbites.eu/a-spatial-domain-variable-block-size-luma-dependent-chroma-compression-...
31•mbitsnbites•3d ago•2 comments

Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

https://rhodesmill.org/brandon/2009/commands-with-comma/
560•theblazehen•3d ago•206 comments

IBM Beam Spring: The Ultimate Retro Keyboard

https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/ibm-beam-spring-the-ultimate-retro-keyboard
6•rbanffy•4d ago•0 comments

Eigen: Building a Workspace

https://reindernijhoff.net/2025/10/eigen-building-a-workspace/
9•todsacerdoti•4d ago•2 comments

Microsoft account bugs locked me out of Notepad – Are thin clients ruining PCs?

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/windows-locked-me-out-of-notepad-is-the-thin-...
110•josephcsible•7h ago•128 comments

The AI boom is causing shortages everywhere else

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/02/07/ai-spending-economy-shortages/
264•1vuio0pswjnm7•15h ago•445 comments

Selection rather than prediction

https://voratiq.com/blog/selection-rather-than-prediction/
28•languid-photic•4d ago•9 comments

I write games in C (yes, C) (2016)

https://jonathanwhiting.com/writing/blog/games_in_c/
175•valyala•9h ago•165 comments

Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback

https://rlhfbook.com/
114•onurkanbkrc•14h ago•5 comments

Unseen Footage of Atari Battlezone Arcade Cabinet Production

https://arcadeblogger.com/2026/02/02/unseen-footage-of-atari-battlezone-cabinet-production/
142•videotopia•4d ago•47 comments

Learning from context is harder than we thought

https://hy.tencent.com/research/100025?langVersion=en
223•limoce•4d ago•124 comments

Where did all the starships go?

https://www.datawrapper.de/blog/science-fiction-decline
133•speckx•4d ago•210 comments

Show HN: Look Ma, No Linux: Shell, App Installer, Vi, Cc on ESP32-S3 / BreezyBox

https://github.com/valdanylchuk/breezydemo
297•isitcontent•1d ago•39 comments

Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

https://hackers-1995.vercel.app/
579•todsacerdoti•1d ago•280 comments