Re:Fable 5 Ported the Ladybird Browser to WebAssembly in One...
by bigyabai on Thursday June 11, 2026 @01:19PM
(#48493307)
Stallman warned about this like 35 years ago, now:
> A copy of a program has nearly zero marginal cost (and you can pay this cost by doing the work yourself), so in a free market, it would have nearly zero price.
> What’s more, central production as now practiced is inefficient even as a means of delivering copies of software. This system involves enclosing physical disks or tapes in superfluous packaging, shipping large numbers of them around the world, and storing them for sale. This cost is presented as an expense of doing business; in truth, it is part of the waste caused by having owners.
Re:Fable 5 Ported the Ladybird Browser to WebAssembly in One...
by resoluteteeth on Thursday June 11, 2026 @01:39PM
(#48493643)
He's talking about the marginal cost of distributing a copy of software which has already been created, which is completely different from LLMs reducing the cost of creating new software.
Re:Fable 5 Ported the Ladybird Browser to WebAssembly in One...
by bigyabai on Thursday June 11, 2026 @04:43PM
(#48496150)
Indeed, but also free compilers, which lowered the cost of creating new software to $0.00 long before AI services did.
Many of the expenses in making a successful software business are a total fiction for both customers and employees from the start. Lines like "careful App Store curation" is the 21st century Shipping & Handling surcharge, in terms of extracting arbitrary profit from your audience. The idea that "software isn't worthless" had to be invented by mankind, and it was apparent that it was a lie when early networks like Usenet were dominated by software piracy. Software has been worthless for so long now.
How was the port verified as complete?
> A copy of a program has nearly zero marginal cost (and you can pay this cost by doing the work yourself), so in a free market, it would have nearly zero price.
> What’s more, central production as now practiced is inefficient even as a means of delivering copies of software. This system involves enclosing physical disks or tapes in superfluous packaging, shipping large numbers of them around the world, and storing them for sale. This cost is presented as an expense of doing business; in truth, it is part of the waste caused by having owners.
(essay mirror): https://oitofelix.github.io/gnu-philosophy/standalone/html/w...
Many of the expenses in making a successful software business are a total fiction for both customers and employees from the start. Lines like "careful App Store curation" is the 21st century Shipping & Handling surcharge, in terms of extracting arbitrary profit from your audience. The idea that "software isn't worthless" had to be invented by mankind, and it was apparent that it was a lie when early networks like Usenet were dominated by software piracy. Software has been worthless for so long now.