[jqpabc123]

Why do corporations exist?

For longevity --- to perpetuate and provide for a path forward with growth and progress that supersedes any one individual. Individuals have a finite lifetime, corporations do not.

Open Source may offer the possibility of perpetuation but it typically does little to help plan, promote or insure it.

Organizationally, most successful open source projects are little dictatorships. It's a cute, simple and efficient way to organize a project --- simply appoint a "benevolent dictator for life" --- until you start to ponder what happens after the dictator is gone.

I'm thinking either chaos and disintegration or some corporation steps into the vacuum to assume leadership and control. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[errantmind]

This seems optimistic to the point of being naive. Have you worked at many large corporations? None of the ones I've worked at attempted to perpetuate anything other than their own preservation, at any cost, and their profits. They weren't interested in 'progress' of any kind unless it furthered those previous purposes, and even then they didn't do it very well. They fought innovation all the way up until it was an absolute necessity.

[jqpabc123]

None of the ones I've worked at attempted to perpetuate anything other than their own preservation

At least they have addressed job 1.

Any organization that doesn't perpetuate itself has failed ... period, the end. There is nothing beyond. It's not possible for a failed, fractured, dysfunctional, non-existent entity to innovate.

Corporations are the worst organizations ... except for all the others that fail the primary test of survival.

[hulitu]

> Why do corporations exist?

To bring more money to stakeholders so they can fly their SUV for a safari in Africa or have s*x with underage people without being punished.

[jqpabc123]

LOL!

A cynical and snarky observation but one that inadvertently furthers my point.

What happens to the corporation if a leader dies in a SUV wreck on safari or gets arrested for statutory rape?

In most corporations, this flawed individual would be immediately replaced with minimal operational impact. Succession is a pre-planned aspect of the organizational structure.

Now, what happens to an Open Source project if this individual is the "benevolent dictator"? It is not a question of "if" but rather "when" this person's participation will end.