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What OS's RMS suggest are irrelevant to the gp's comment that RMS saw this slippery slope in computing coming long before most. > No real way to build a skyscr

What OS's RMS suggest are irrelevant to the gp's comment that RMS saw this slippery slope in computing coming long before most. > No real way to build a skyscraper or produce a state of the art feature film on free software. Yes, CAD software is a known issue in FOSS land, but you can still run them in wine on linux when you have to. It is getting better though, lots of consistent updates to some of the foss-cads. Blender on the other hand, is now often the backbone of the feature film industry. As a matter of fact a large portion of the industry is moving more and more towards at least OSS. (https://www.aswf.io/projects/ https://www.aswf.io/projects/) > The whole world moved on to devices where not only is the software nonfree This is a blanket statement and not true. What about the fact that foss generally runs the vast majority of the internet that allows those non-free devices to function? You've basically got a bunch of linux boxes at the edge of every residential network. Reminds of that time I got into an argument with the Guardians senior technical editor who tried to tell me linux was irrelevant... The supercomputing top 500 certainly doesn't reflect such claims, since you mentioned "state-of-the-art". > there is not even an option of choosing free software, and, even if there were, there is no comparable free software to choose. In the vast majority of the cases, there are plenty of FOSS alternatives to choose. > Why? Because they work better and allow you to get more things done in less time. Why? Because the school system got locked into to proprietary software when it shouldn't have and thats all they train people on for the most part. Not because of inherent issues in the software interface.

danudey 5y ago
> Yes, CAD software is a known issue in FOSS land, but you can still run them in wine on linux when you have to. It is getting better though, lots of consistent updates to some of the foss-cads. And if you have any issue at all and need technical support, the company will say "That is not a supported configuration, sorry." and you're on your own. > This is a blanket statement and not true. What about the fact that foss generally runs the vast majority of the internet that allows those non-free devices to function? And non-free software runs the networking hardware that that internet runs over. > Because the school system got locked into to proprietary software when it shouldn't have and thats all they train people on for the most part. Because the school system trains people on what is actually being used, and not on what should, theoretically, be used, in a hypothetical scenario where everyone has weeks or months to relearn everything they know about computing (like how to install and use Linux, and then how to install and use Wine, and then how to install and use their proprietary business tools on Wine on Linux and solve any bugs that come up).
sneak 5y ago
I was always perplexed at Blender's quality and polish, given that it is F/OSS. It turns out it started off as proprietary software, and was open-sourced later. (It's also impossible to create a feature film, start to finish, with Blender alone, which was my point; not that there aren't 3d animation tools that work on linux.)
- AlexAndScripts 5y ago
  Almost all of Blenders development has been as FOSS software. It was open sourced in 2002.
- HelixEndeavor 5y ago
  Compare Blender in its proprietary days to Blender now. Its polish and functionality cannot be attributed to it having at one point been proprietary, because almost everything to love about the software today was created in its FOSS state.

danudey 5y ago

> Yes, CAD software is a known issue in FOSS land, but you can still run them in wine on linux when you have to. It is getting better though, lots of consistent updates to some of the foss-cads. And if you have any issue at all and need technical support, the company will say "That is not a supported configuration, sorry." and you're on your own. > This is a blanket statement and not true. What about the fact that foss generally runs the vast majority of the internet that allows those non-free devices to function? And non-free software runs the networking hardware that that internet runs over. > Because the school system got locked into to proprietary software when it shouldn't have and thats all they train people on for the most part. Because the school system trains people on what is actually being used, and not on what should, theoretically, be used, in a hypothetical scenario where everyone has weeks or months to relearn everything they know about computing (like how to install and use Linux, and then how to install and use Wine, and then how to install and use their proprietary business tools on Wine on Linux and solve any bugs that come up).

sneak 5y ago

I was always perplexed at Blender's quality and polish, given that it is F/OSS. It turns out it started off as proprietary software, and was open-sourced later. (It's also impossible to create a feature film, start to finish, with Blender alone, which was my point; not that there aren't 3d animation tools that work on linux.)

AlexAndScripts 5y ago
Almost all of Blenders development has been as FOSS software. It was open sourced in 2002.
HelixEndeavor 5y ago
Compare Blender in its proprietary days to Blender now. Its polish and functionality cannot be attributed to it having at one point been proprietary, because almost everything to love about the software today was created in its FOSS state.