Easy! Let's look at the words one by one:
* "The network", implied being the only one relevant to the reader, must therefore be The Internet
* "surveillance" means "observation", "looking at things", in the most general sense. How can The Internet look at things? The computers don't have agency; so we must revise "The Internet" to mean the people on the internet. Which is, for all intents and purposes, everyone.
* "Realm" means kingdom. In common usage, "Realm of..." means "everything relating to/comprising/surrounding ...". So "realm of free software" is just, well, free software and how it's used.
* Being "home to" something means that something is always there when we talk about concepts that lack agency, like the ability of people to look at things. "A is home to B" means that B is inherently a part of A.
So, putting it all together, we have:
>People knowing exactly what you make and how it's used is a part of making and using free software.
Or, to say it less clumsily:
>When you make free software, everyone can see how they're made and used
Simplifying further to:
>Anyone can see how free software is made and used
...which is, of course, the entire point. Duh.
Anyone; there you go, you're welcome!
PS: speech like that is exactly what Orwell wrote against back in the day[1]. You will enjoy reading it.
[1]https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwel...
Free software being out in the open makes analyzing it to find zero days easier, but also can be analyzed as a group. some companies, Google being a very notable case, are quite public about their efforts to evaluate and improve free software. So no, your distilled point is not the one I was trying to make.
Generally speaking, you are "sharing" your password with an entity that you wish to share or at least access other resources too. There has to be a degree of trust relationship of some sort, regardless of what scheme you choose for authentication.
Getting the relationship right is the really complicated, or at least, the most important part of the equation, the rest is tiddlywinks! There is no point getting all steamed up over one authentication scheme or another unless the whole transaction is considered end to end.
Passwords can work and work well, in certain circumstances, as do all the other authentication methods. They all have success and failure modes of one sort or another.
"The realm of free software is home to surveillance by the network" - what does that actually mean?