Time & Perspective Quote by Nat Friedman

There is a particular kind of Silicon Valley candor in Friedman’s line: it smuggles a whole theory of power into a plainspoken observation about price. “Momentum” sounds like an organic force, as if Linux simply rolled downhill into dominance. Friedman punctures that myth with one blunt variable: zero cost. Not “open source,” not “community,” not “security” or “philosophy” - free.

The intent is pragmatic, almost corrective. In tech discourse, Linux often gets wrapped in moral language (freedom, collaboration, anti-corporate purity). Friedman, a businessman who’s spent years inside the open-source economy, frames Linux’s success as a distribution hack. When something is free to acquire, it can spread frictionlessly across classrooms, emerging markets, hobbyist rigs, data centers, and startups that would rather spend money on talent and infrastructure than on licensing. “Momentum” is the compounding effect of countless low-stakes decisions: try it, ship it, standardize it, teach it, hire for it.

The subtext: “free” is not the same as “cheap.” Linux shifts costs away from purchase and into integration, support, and expertise - costs that larger organizations can absorb and vendors can monetize. That’s where the business story hides: Linux’s no-price tag doesn’t kill markets; it rearranges them. Friedman is also, quietly, deflating the romantic notion that better technology automatically wins. Linux won because it was adoptable at scale, and “free” is the fastest way to become inevitable.