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I write Free Software. My users aren't leeches and I wouldn't insult them that way. (There are leeches who try to get you to solve their problems for them as o
by einpoklum 6y ago
I write Free Software. My users aren't leeches and I wouldn't insult them that way.
(There are leeches who try to get you to solve their problems for them as opposed to reporting bugs, but that's a tiny minority.)
- josephg 6y agoI worked at a company a few years ago which (like everyone else) uses a software stack packed full of opensource code. There was a simple indexing service in our infrastructure which I designed so we could opensource it in turn. When it was ready, the legal team refused to let me opensource it and that was that. I felt really gross about that decision for awhile and it took me months to figure out why. My take now is that I was complicit in a parasitic use of opensource maintainers’ free support to fix issues we ran into. Despite that workplace choosing to never being part of the community, we pretended we were so we could get free support for our free software without giving back in any way. In retrospect I wish I’d pushed harder on the legal team. Or suggested we sponsor some projects as an alternative.