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>Regardless of if the software if free, you do have the choice to use it. The problem with something like Facebook, though, is that choosing to use a platform
by jgg 16y ago
>Regardless of if the software if free, you do have the choice to use it.
The problem with something like Facebook, though, is that choosing to use a platform other than Facebook for Facebook's purposes is useless, because the entire purpose of a "social network" site is lost unless a large number of people are using it. Most people aren't very technical, so they're going to use one networking site, and guess what? It's going to be what "everyone else" is using.
So, sure, you still have the choice to use it. But it's not like, say, system software, in that if you don't like the primary offering, you can go implement your own or download somebody else's.
That being said, I've still found absolutely no reason to use Facebook, and as such I don't.
- ihodes 16y agoI was using Facebook, for a lot of reasons, but deleted my account yesterday. I'm living fine without it. No one is forcing me to use it, and email (free! but using Mail.app and my iPhone to give it a boost I want and need–though I wouldn't mind Letters.app to appear) handles most of my needs, along with Flickr and Twitter, which are also both closed platforms. I'm not too burdened by the software I use. I use what pleases me most. Right now that spectrum includes emacs at one end and iPhone OS at the other. As someone pointed out above, free software fundamentalism has its place, and I respect it. But I also respect the hard work and effort that goes into software like 1Password and Things, and they both make my life a little bit better.
- jgg 16y agoOf course no one is "forcing" you (at least in the general sense) to use Facebook. My point was that if you want a social networking site, switching to some fair, free and open alternative doesn't go as smoothly as switchin.g something like an e-mail client or a text editor
- mquander 16y agoNote that this is the whole point -- if Facebook were free software, it would be that easy, because other software could interoperate with it effectively. Free software naturally ameliorates this kind of lock-in effect. Not using free software in the first place is what gets people into this mess.
- zts 16y agoWere all of Facebook's service free software, that wouldn't guarantee interoperability. Conversely, providing effective interoperability doesn't require free software. Those concerns are orthogonal.