"I don't care about paid experience ... we hired lots of people from open source projects".
"The better demonstration of grasping computing technology is actually having done something with a computer".
So you do care about experience.
"The better demonstration of grasping computing technology is actually having done something with a computer".
So you do care about experience.
I'm not saying that there aren't ANY employers who respect unpaid experience, just that they are uncommon.
Quite commonly I offer to provide sample source for programs I've actually written. No one ever wants to look at my source - they only want to know that someone else has paid me.