Probably not. If Noam Chomsky is to be believed (I do), most research to date has been publicly funded. In the US, it has been mostly through military expenditures. (To take only one example, ARPANET itself was funded by the military.)
The actually awesome part is having huge investments on long term research. Private or public, it doesn't make any difference.
In response to your comment on another topic:
You can run a "freedom box" as follows:
http://freedombone.uk.to
The guide will work for a raspberry pi or a beagle bone.
It was created out of frustration with progress of the freedom box project.
The actually awesome part is having huge investments on long term research. Private or public, it doesn't make any difference.