News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source by slackfan on Thursday March 24, 2022 @10:20AM (#30790136)
I use software to build stuff, not to subscribe to a set of political ideologies.
Re:Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source by trentnix on Thursday March 24, 2022 @10:29AM (#30790302)
A small, extremely loud, and extremely sanctimonious part of the population will not accept that. They will consider your lack of political motivation for your work distasteful and eventually immoral. You'll be asked to support movements, participate in ritual, and publicly proclaim your allegiance. Eventually, they'll demand it.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.” - C.S. Lewis

Re:Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source by slackfan on Thursday March 24, 2022 @10:32AM (#30790346)
Oh there's no eventually. They've been demanding it for years. There's a very good reason why some software on my machines is already pinned to specific versions, and will not under any circumstances be upgraded.

Thankfully the field of software development has stagnated to the point that there really hasn't been any significant improvements to actual non-web software in about 15 years, so I'm looking forward to the brand new world with a stack of ancient machines, a bunch of boxes of capacitors, and a few hard drives' worth of abandonware, because frankly, fuck that noise THE AMISH WERE RIGHT.

Re:Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source by beaconstudios on Thursday March 24, 2022 @10:53AM (#30790717)
not every politics-adjacent thread needs to devolve into "the wokes are coming for us all". You can disagree with the actions of progressives without making it this all-encompassing threat. Hell, I'm pretty left-wing and I'm fairly critical of some of the factions.

Either way, I can't see anybody putting "must add a BLM banner to their website" to the licensing conditions of their FOSS code.

Re:Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source by slackfan on Thursday March 24, 2022 @10:55AM (#30790741)
That would be a wonderful thing to able be do, if the woke brigade wasn't screaming "YOU'RE WITH US OR YOU'RE AGAINST US" a parent over. ;) Ignoring that isn't an option, unfortunately, believe me, that's been tried.
Re:Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source by beaconstudios on Thursday March 24, 2022 @10:56AM (#30790770)
Yeah but so what? Disagreements are going to happen in politics. Other people disliking your politics and vice-versa is not an existential threat.

Anybody who legitimately makes a "liberals only" stand in their license will get forked and their usage will drop off.

Re:Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source by slackfan on Thursday March 24, 2022 @10:59AM (#30790820)
>yeah but so what

Being silent about shitty behavior is the same as condoning it, don't you know? Just because you don't like the playbook doesn't mean it doesn't work.

>Anybody who legitimately makes a "liberals only" stand in their license will get forked and their usage will drop off.

Considering that the developer just pulled a "no russians" stand with their software...

Re:Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source by beaconstudios on Thursday March 24, 2022 @11:03AM (#30790879)
> Being silent about shitty behavior is the same as condoning it, don't you know? Just because you don't like the playbook doesn't mean it doesn't work.

my point is that it doesn't matter. Condemn or not, regardless you can still fork earlier versions. Materially, it's not a threat to you.

> Considering that the developer just pulled a "no russians" stand with their software...

Yeah and look at how much shit they're catching for it. People are forking and freezing earlier versions, he's getting raked through the coals, etc. Is this really the outcome conservatives are afraid of?

Re:Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source by slackfan on Thursday March 24, 2022 @11:05AM (#30790903)
>materially it is not a threat to you

Kind of crappy whataboutism there don't you think? What if I'm a VPN user and my hard drive was wiped?

>Conservatives

What does this have to do with conservatives?

Re:Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source by beaconstudios on Thursday March 24, 2022 @11:07AM (#30790936)
> Kind of crappy whataboutism there don't you think? What if I'm a VPN user and my hard drive was wiped?

Yeah it obviously sucks to be a victim of this behaviour, but the developer is being roundly condemned by everybody. I thought you were worried about this type of behaviour being encouraged by progressives?

> What does this have to do with conservatives?

Just a guess, it's usually conservatives that hand-wring this much about "woke" people.