The need to label everything as right and left betrays a primitive binary mentality. A more accurate designation here would be distributed vs non-distributed systems. Then we can have an intelligent conversation about the relative advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches.
Also, it seems like this need to split everything right vs left is more characteristic of the older generation who are less familiar with technology. I think our generation thinks more in terms of solving problems with the best tool available-- be it the government, the market, or open source.
I got the same sense from this article. He values "cyberlibertarians" based on what they contribute to the right vs left and concludes that their contributions favor the right more. Although the distributed vs centralized argument is nothing new (see federalists vs anti-federalists in the late 18th century) it seems to have been largely absent from political discussions for a long time.
The author seems to be struggling to fit these new ideals into his liberal vs conservative world view and rather than being able to see this "free and open" movement as something different, concludes that it's a political ploy to weaken big government regulatory powers for the profit of wealthy capitalists.
It does seem that younger generations are more open to a wider variety of political ideology, but I don't think familiarity with technology has much to do with it other than the incidental fact that the internet allows people to be exposed to ideas they would probably never hear from the mass media or mainstream political debates.
Also, it seems like this need to split everything right vs left is more characteristic of the older generation who are less familiar with technology. I think our generation thinks more in terms of solving problems with the best tool available-- be it the government, the market, or open source.