Re:Is the FSF Fighting the Previous War?
by pessimizer on Saturday October 08, 2022 @05:00AM
(#33130866)
Open Source's goals are being achieved by Open Source. I think a lot of people need to admit that they don't agree with Free Software's values and goals, and they prefer Open Source because it's free shit that they can use at their job to look good, and why wouldn't you like that?
Free Software is about owning your machine. It's not about being allowed to be installed, or even being easy to install on machines you don't own. It's not about being higher quality. The Free alternative maybe worse, but no one can take it away from you, and it won't spy on you if you don't want it to.
It is not about having free high quality software for everyone to use. That is a lucky consequence of giving people control over their own devices and the things that run on them. Things that enter Free Software never die. They grow, stop growing, then later grow again. They only die if people find something else better, and they always have a chance of rising from the dead. They're public property. Open Source, which is wonderful once you turn it into Free Software, is not immortal. All you have to do is embrace it, extend it, then kill interop, and it is gone.
edit: Open Source starts off as dead code. I can take it, extend it, and obfuscate it tomorrow, and it's mine. If I spend enough on marketing I can make the original look defective. I can make the Open Source version look dangerous and point out its bugs while hiding my own. I can make the vendors only accept the version signed with my key to provide something we decided to call "end-to-end verification."
Doesn't work with GPL software. They have to write their own.
Free Software is about owning your machine. It's not about being allowed to be installed, or even being easy to install on machines you don't own. It's not about being higher quality. The Free alternative maybe worse, but no one can take it away from you, and it won't spy on you if you don't want it to.
It is not about having free high quality software for everyone to use. That is a lucky consequence of giving people control over their own devices and the things that run on them. Things that enter Free Software never die. They grow, stop growing, then later grow again. They only die if people find something else better, and they always have a chance of rising from the dead. They're public property. Open Source, which is wonderful once you turn it into Free Software, is not immortal. All you have to do is embrace it, extend it, then kill interop, and it is gone.
edit: Open Source starts off as dead code. I can take it, extend it, and obfuscate it tomorrow, and it's mine. If I spend enough on marketing I can make the original look defective. I can make the Open Source version look dangerous and point out its bugs while hiding my own. I can make the vendors only accept the version signed with my key to provide something we decided to call "end-to-end verification."
Doesn't work with GPL software. They have to write their own.