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A comment on VSCodium – Free/Libre Open Source Software Binaries of VS Code. Parent comment

Re:VSCodium – Free/Libre Open Source Software Binaries of VS... by paskozdilar on Friday June 03, 2022 @10:08AM (#31608484)
The user (of the proprietary software) is forced to execute on his machine whatever computation that software tells him to. He has no way of knowing what that computation does or modify it. In this case, developer holds unjust power over the user because the developer can make the software do whatever he wants, and even change the behavior of the program by auto-updating it over the network - and the user is completely powerless against the developer.

Yes, he can choose not to be a user (of the proprietary software). That does not make proprietary software any less immoral. Being able to refuse to be a part of a pyramid scheme doesn't make pyramid schemes any less immoral.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:VSCodium – Free/Libre Open Source Software Binaries of VS... by MathCodeLove on Friday June 03, 2022 @10:22AM (#31608687)
Your saying that this being a possibility means all proprietary software is immoral is like saying that since some businesses are pyramid schemes, all businesses are immoral.

Spyware is immoral, I agree. That doesn't make all proprietary software immoral and collecting relevant usage data doesn't make it Spyware.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:VSCodium – Free/Libre Open Source Software Binaries of VS... by paskozdilar on Friday June 03, 2022 @10:52AM (#31609103)
> Your saying that this being a possibility means all proprietary software is immoral is like saying that since some businesses are pyramid schemes, all businesses are immoral.

No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that proprietary software is immoral because it takes away an important human freedom - the freedom to control our own computation. You're said "ok but what if someone agrees to use proprietary software?" then I said "that does not make proprietary software any less bad".

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:VSCodium – Free/Libre Open Source Software Binaries of VS... by duckmysick on Friday June 03, 2022 @12:49PM (#31610727)
If a user can choose not to use propriatary software, do the developers of propriatary software still have unjust power over its users?
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Re:VSCodium – Free/Libre Open Source Software Binaries of VS... by paskozdilar on Friday June 03, 2022 @01:34PM (#31611292)
Proprietary software gives unjust power to developers over their users.

If a user chooses not to use proprietary software, then they're not a user (of proprietary software).

The fact that each person can opt out of something harmful doesn't make the harmful thing any less harmful.

[ Parent | on HN ]