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Your comment neatly alludes to the difference between the Open Source philosophies and the Free Software philosophy, and the biggest point of difference is "fre

by d4rti 6y ago

Your comment neatly alludes to the difference between the Open Source philosophies and the Free Software philosophy, and the biggest point of difference is "freedom for whom?" wherein OSS is about freedom for developers and FSF is about freedom for users. Most users don't actually fall in either camp, and largely care about free as in beer (gratis), or possibly free as in doesn't require complex purchasing processes that require signoff or approvals.

nudpiedo 6y ago
Having worked in large corporations and now wishing to bootstrap my own projects here my two cents on how I see things currently in the OSS/FS: I see the current state of FS as a way to cooperate between organizations in an almost transparent way and at the same time protect themselves from competitors by making the entry barrier to the market higher to little players as they would need to be remarkably stronger than the current free offering. Sure, everyone wins by having more accessible free knowledge and products everywhere, but now these markets have quite high entry bar for anyone who doesn't have enough capital to be in a market which cannot sustain smaller players. Somehow `massive` OSS defeats the competitiveness of capitalism and that is something which wasn't expected when FS was originally formulated. Also a project which appears to be free but it is extremely lobbied and flooded with milions of many companies and contains incredibly large amounts of financing and development time is not accessible to most of the users anymore as these are overpowered by corporations.
- neutronicus 6y ago
  Oh, I think there might have been some expectation on Stallman's part of doing injury to capitalism.
  - tremon 6y ago
    No, expressly not, except maybe to the (strictly American) capitalist conception that monopolies are a good thing. When you take the original capitalist idea that says monopolies should be avoided because they distort the free market, Free Software is actually very capitalist: it removes the stranglehold that the original manufacturer has on the software after initial sale, thereby ensuring that market power doesn't concentrate in one entity.
neutronicus 6y ago
Well, FSF is about freedom for users with the technical expertise to modify the software and understand its source code.
- simion314 6y ago
  >Well, FSF is about freedom for users with the technical expertise to modify the software and understand its source code. FALSE, example some guy pays me to modify a GPL script/program and add some integration for his business. If I am a jerk I don't give him the source code only an obfuscated binary. This guy is not an expert but if I would have respected the license and give him the source code then he can in future hire a new developer to update the application when a new change is needed. Conclusion is that I do not need to be a developer to benefit from free software I can always find somebody that I can pay to fix or add something I need.
  - wolco 6y ago
    Legally he could sue when the next developer asks for it.
- tremon 6y ago
  And for users with access to technical expertise to do the same. IOW, free software decouples the maintenance and adaptation of software from the original vendor, much like personal vehicles, household appliances and general home improvements rely on a support infrastructure that has only very minimal ties with the original manufacturer.

by d4rti 6y ago

nudpiedo 6y ago

Having worked in large corporations and now wishing to bootstrap my own projects here my two cents on how I see things currently in the OSS/FS: I see the current state of FS as a way to cooperate between organizations in an almost transparent way and at the same time protect themselves from competitors by making the entry barrier to the market higher to little players as they would need to be remarkably stronger than the current free offering. Sure, everyone wins by having more accessible free knowledge and products everywhere, but now these markets have quite high entry bar for anyone who doesn't have enough capital to be in a market which cannot sustain smaller players. Somehow `massive` OSS defeats the competitiveness of capitalism and that is something which wasn't expected when FS was originally formulated. Also a project which appears to be free but it is extremely lobbied and flooded with milions of many companies and contains incredibly large amounts of financing and development time is not accessible to most of the users anymore as these are overpowered by corporations.

neutronicus 6y ago
Oh, I think there might have been some expectation on Stallman's part of doing injury to capitalism.
- tremon 6y ago
  No, expressly not, except maybe to the (strictly American) capitalist conception that monopolies are a good thing. When you take the original capitalist idea that says monopolies should be avoided because they distort the free market, Free Software is actually very capitalist: it removes the stranglehold that the original manufacturer has on the software after initial sale, thereby ensuring that market power doesn't concentrate in one entity.

neutronicus 6y ago

Well, FSF is about freedom for users with the technical expertise to modify the software and understand its source code.

simion314 6y ago
>Well, FSF is about freedom for users with the technical expertise to modify the software and understand its source code. FALSE, example some guy pays me to modify a GPL script/program and add some integration for his business. If I am a jerk I don't give him the source code only an obfuscated binary. This guy is not an expert but if I would have respected the license and give him the source code then he can in future hire a new developer to update the application when a new change is needed. Conclusion is that I do not need to be a developer to benefit from free software I can always find somebody that I can pay to fix or add something I need.
- wolco 6y ago
  Legally he could sue when the next developer asks for it.
tremon 6y ago
And for users with access to technical expertise to do the same. IOW, free software decouples the maintenance and adaptation of software from the original vendor, much like personal vehicles, household appliances and general home improvements rely on a support infrastructure that has only very minimal ties with the original manufacturer.