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A comment on Why Johnny Won't Upgrade. Parent comment

Re:Why Johnny Won't Upgrade by segfaultbuserr on Thursday August 27, 2020 @07:18AM (#24292493)
The standard story in the computer folklore was Movable Type [0], a blogging platform. In the early 2000s when blogosphere was at its height, Movable Type was used by numerous authors. It was freeware, source code available, and had a big collection of plugins and extensions. It was not Free and Open Source, with restrictions on use and redistribution, but most thought it was good enough.

As time went by, its shortcomings and limitations became obvious and a new version was needed. But the development has already stagnated because the publisher's interests shifted. And finally when the new version was released, it contained numerous bugs, and many bloggers suddenly found they needed to pay several hundreds dollars of licensing fee under the new license.

Matthew Thomas, a blogosphere personality, wrote an outline for anyone who wants to create an ultimate blogging platform [2] that can stand the test of time and prevent similar incidents from happening again. Requirements included free database backend, open archive formats, and free software.

His article was also the source of a famous remark,

> In the long run, the utility of all non-Free software approaches zero.

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[0] https://www.gwern.net/docs/technology/2004-pilgrim-freedom0....

[1] http://web.archive.org/web/20051107103030/http://mpt.phrasew...

[2] The Movable Type Incident was a major event responsible for the rise of WordPress, which was a new project at that time. Even the name "WordPress" refers to the printing press, in analogue to Movable Type.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Johnny Won't Upgrade by hutzlibu on Thursday August 27, 2020 @08:43AM (#24293067)
"In the long run, the utility of all non-Free software approaches zero."

But to be fair, that is allmost true of any software, with changing archtectures programming languages etc. but a thousands times yes! With free software you have at least the option of doing the work of migrating.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Johnny Won't Upgrade by einpoklum on Thursday August 27, 2020 @10:32AM (#24294054)
Well, depends on what you mean by "long term".

BSD-licensed low-level unix programs are still quite useful today and are likely to continue to be very useful in coming decades.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Johnny Won't Upgrade by hutzlibu on Friday August 28, 2020 @02:45AM (#24302014)
And I am sure there are still comercial modules around, from the 70s or earlier, as well..
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Johnny Won't Upgrade by MaxBarraclough on Thursday August 27, 2020 @11:46AM (#24294818)
If they're BSD-licensed, that means they're Free Software.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Johnny Won't Upgrade by segfaultbuserr on Thursday August 27, 2020 @12:20PM (#24295217)
Nobody said it isn't. You misunderstood the discussion here.

I quoted "In the long run, the utility of all non-Free software approaches zero."

hutzlibu said the same problem affects all software, not just non-Free software. In a constantly changing computing environment, even free software is affected. Nevertheless, hutzlibu was in agreement with the "spirit" of the quote, because at least the user still controls the software, and it's possible to migrate.

einpoklum disagreed, using BSD utilities as an example - showing how free software can be unaffected.

Disclaimer: I didn't downvote the parent post - Why is my parent post downvoted? There's really no disagreement here.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Johnny Won't Upgrade by MaxBarraclough on Thursday August 27, 2020 @01:11PM (#24295869)
Right, gotcha.

> Why is my parent post downvoted? There's really no disagreement here.

I appreciate it, but even if I'd disagreed, that's no reason to downvote.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Johnny Won't Upgrade by cercatrova on Friday August 28, 2020 @12:00PM (#24306465)
Honestly, a blog should just generate itself from plaintext, like Markdown, so that you can always keep the data, and even put it in version control and diff it easily.
[ Parent | on HN ]