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GPL software is the foundation of the privacy unfriendly platforms we now have. Facebook runs on Linux, Google runs on Linux. Having Linux available made it mu

GPL software is the foundation of the privacy unfriendly platforms we now have. Facebook runs on Linux, Google runs on Linux. Having Linux available made it much more cost effective to store data and do computation on the server, instead of the user’s device. You think Facebook would exist if it had to buy per CPU licenses of Windows NT Advanced server? Frankly, we would have been better off in the Microsoft world of individual PCs running proprietary applications on the computer the user owned. Because it ran on your system, you had defacto control over what it did, and if you really wanted to, could reverse engineer and patch it (witness game hacks, and what Microsoft did for backwards compatibility). Now thanks to the economics of GPL software such as Linux, we are being pushed to a model where all data is stored and computed with on servers you don’t own.

monocasa 6y ago
You don't think they'd just run on the BSDs instead if GPLed software didn't exist?
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
  For some reason, the BSDs never really developed as a rival to commercial server operating systems. Solaris, Irix, Windows NT, etc all seemed to exist pretty well even though BSDs were freely available. Then Linux came and ate everyone’s lunch. Maybe it was the GPL’s requirements to contribute back changes that resulted in Linux rapidly developing a lot of capabilities?
domador 6y ago
Fascinating argument! If I may distill it, it sounds like Low-cost server software -> more power to server-based systems and companies -> more centralization of data -> less privacy Expensive server software -> more power to standalone computing and individual users -> more decentralization of data -> more privacy On a related note, I wonder what would be the threshold at which the cost of servers and software would make social media and ad-tech companies economically unviable, and which would have prevented Facebook, Google, and others from becoming what they've become.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
  In some ways, this kind of plays out in iPhone vs Android. Apple seems to default to push computation and data onto the device. Google seems to default to push computation and data into the cloud.

monocasa 6y ago

You don't think they'd just run on the BSDs instead if GPLed software didn't exist?

RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
For some reason, the BSDs never really developed as a rival to commercial server operating systems. Solaris, Irix, Windows NT, etc all seemed to exist pretty well even though BSDs were freely available. Then Linux came and ate everyone’s lunch. Maybe it was the GPL’s requirements to contribute back changes that resulted in Linux rapidly developing a lot of capabilities?

domador 6y ago

Fascinating argument! If I may distill it, it sounds like Low-cost server software -> more power to server-based systems and companies -> more centralization of data -> less privacy Expensive server software -> more power to standalone computing and individual users -> more decentralization of data -> more privacy On a related note, I wonder what would be the threshold at which the cost of servers and software would make social media and ad-tech companies economically unviable, and which would have prevented Facebook, Google, and others from becoming what they've become.

RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
In some ways, this kind of plays out in iPhone vs Android. Apple seems to default to push computation and data onto the device. Google seems to default to push computation and data into the cloud.