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The article itself is a bit of a train-wreck, but hopefully it can provide some insight for "open source" people to how they are perceived, if the article is an

The article itself is a bit of a train-wreck, but hopefully it can provide some insight for "open source" people to how they are perceived, if the article is anything to go by. - You work for free, and should work for free. - You sharing your programming is equated with sharing whatever non-sense on Flickr and Twitter. - Collective action and sharing is always positive, even if it erodes privacy and strictly gains commercial 3rd parties, because it's "culture". In short, your ideals and ideas are being co-opted by large businesses and pundits, and in return you get to be part of "a movement" that might not benefit you. Please be aware of that when large corporations "warm up" towards open source, or when pundits proclaim that, in effect, you should be more "pragmatic" and go with the flow or miss out on the revolution. In contrast, Free Software, even if considered crusty and old-fashioned, is about one thing: respecting the freedoms of users. That single thing can facilitate making great, fun communities; it can create a solid basis to boost commerce and enhance capitalism; it can serve to prop up your libertarian Utopia. It can help with all these things and many more, but it is none of these things.

beatgammit 7y ago
One thing I liked about liberally licensed libraries was that I could use and contribute to them both at my day job and my side hustle. If I wanted a particular library at my regular job and my side hustle, the lowest effort way to do that was to release something as MIT/BSD/Apache (and maybe MPL) on my own time, then use and improve it at my regular job, which meant I could avoid doing the same work twice (and maybe get coworkers to contribute). That just isn't feasible most of the time for Free Software. If you want to profit from Free Software, you have to design both the software and your business model around the license. With liberally licensed software, you just use it. And yes, it certainly benefits other companies, but is that really the bad thing? I'll work on something if it benefits me, and if it benefits someone else too, that's fantastic. I don't care if it nets me hundreds while netting someone else millions, I'm still getting hundreds. I used to build stuff to be "part of the community", but that's less important to be now than building stuff because it benefits me. There are a million projects I could involve myself in, so now I'm just a bit more selective on what I contribute to.
- craigsmansion 7y ago
  Liberally licensed software is also Free Software, just like copyleft licenses. One can argue which type is "more free", and many have, and many more will, but ultimately they're all Free Software licenses.

beatgammit 7y ago

One thing I liked about liberally licensed libraries was that I could use and contribute to them both at my day job and my side hustle. If I wanted a particular library at my regular job and my side hustle, the lowest effort way to do that was to release something as MIT/BSD/Apache (and maybe MPL) on my own time, then use and improve it at my regular job, which meant I could avoid doing the same work twice (and maybe get coworkers to contribute). That just isn't feasible most of the time for Free Software. If you want to profit from Free Software, you have to design both the software and your business model around the license. With liberally licensed software, you just use it. And yes, it certainly benefits other companies, but is that really the bad thing? I'll work on something if it benefits me, and if it benefits someone else too, that's fantastic. I don't care if it nets me hundreds while netting someone else millions, I'm still getting hundreds. I used to build stuff to be "part of the community", but that's less important to be now than building stuff because it benefits me. There are a million projects I could involve myself in, so now I'm just a bit more selective on what I contribute to.

craigsmansion 7y ago
Liberally licensed software is also Free Software, just like copyleft licenses. One can argue which type is "more free", and many have, and many more will, but ultimately they're all Free Software licenses.