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OSS: The story of how programmers were duped into yielding their daily bread to managers and helping big corporations grow huge using their software for free in

OSS: The story of how programmers were duped into yielding their daily bread to managers and helping big corporations grow huge using their software for free in deep disregard to whatever license came attached to it. All hail Stallman & Co and all the brilliant masters of narratives behind them.

kfogel 4y ago
"Citation needed" :-). There have been occasional examples of misbehavior and ignoring the license terms of certain FOSS licenses, but by and large almost everyone -- including corporations -- does abide by them. The common licenses are well-written, legally solid, and most lawyers (again, and most importantly, including corporate lawyers) agree they would be enforceable in court. I don't know if you've had a bad experience with releasing free / open source software, and I'm sorry if you have. Many people have seen good results from doing it, and furthermore there's a baseline level of digital freedom now available that is entirely due to people producing such software. The most obvious example, of course, is that you can run a free operating system on your computer and thus not be at the mercy of gigantic tech companies when it comes to privacy, advertising nuisance, non-configurable user interfaces, etc.
wyldfire 4y ago
I'm among the many developers of commercial + Open Source software out there. And sometimes I also contribute bugfixes/features to Free Software projects. I'm paid to do it and I enjoy my work and count myself as lucky to be a part of the communities I'm able to work with. It may come as no surprise that I disagree with your characterization of being duped. I'm handsomely rewarded for my work and my resume has never looked better.
pabs3 4y ago
It is true that software re-use through FLOSS licensing has definitely lead to a reduced amount of need for each company to reimplement a lot of software, but there is still a ton of work out there for software developers and even a ton of work for paid FLOSS developers in some areas. On the whole I think FLOSS licensing has been a net positive to the amount of paid software development work available, even though there are definitely sustainability issues in FLOSS and not every software developer can get a FLOSS job.

kfogel 4y ago

"Citation needed" :-). There have been occasional examples of misbehavior and ignoring the license terms of certain FOSS licenses, but by and large almost everyone -- including corporations -- does abide by them. The common licenses are well-written, legally solid, and most lawyers (again, and most importantly, including corporate lawyers) agree they would be enforceable in court. I don't know if you've had a bad experience with releasing free / open source software, and I'm sorry if you have. Many people have seen good results from doing it, and furthermore there's a baseline level of digital freedom now available that is entirely due to people producing such software. The most obvious example, of course, is that you can run a free operating system on your computer and thus not be at the mercy of gigantic tech companies when it comes to privacy, advertising nuisance, non-configurable user interfaces, etc.

wyldfire 4y ago

I'm among the many developers of commercial + Open Source software out there. And sometimes I also contribute bugfixes/features to Free Software projects. I'm paid to do it and I enjoy my work and count myself as lucky to be a part of the communities I'm able to work with. It may come as no surprise that I disagree with your characterization of being duped. I'm handsomely rewarded for my work and my resume has never looked better.

pabs3 4y ago

It is true that software re-use through FLOSS licensing has definitely lead to a reduced amount of need for each company to reimplement a lot of software, but there is still a ton of work out there for software developers and even a ton of work for paid FLOSS developers in some areas. On the whole I think FLOSS licensing has been a net positive to the amount of paid software development work available, even though there are definitely sustainability issues in FLOSS and not every software developer can get a FLOSS job.