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What a strange statement. FOSS development isn't a thing that you sustain. I write some code for myself and I decide to share it. I want to solve a problem,

What a strange statement. FOSS development isn't a thing that you sustain. I write some code for myself and I decide to share it. I want to solve a problem, and I find that someone else already solved it and shared it. Sustainability doesn't even enter into the picture. I don't ask to be "sustained" when I work on a hobby any more than were I to read a book or play a game. At some point, perhaps when young programmers joined companies accustomed to using FOSS for everything, many of the community seems to have forgotten this, despite it being front and center on every FOSS license. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. You want it? You do it, or you pay someone to do it. You don't ask for FOSS devs to be sustained, which implies that other people are doing the paying for you.

jerojero 4y ago
Well... I don't think things are that simple. Is open source software (OSS) something that benefits society more than closed source software (CSS) ? That's a big question, I think a lot of people consider that yes OSS is better for society. A software that is accesible by many, even those that don't have the means to afford a paid alternative can change someone's life. But then the fact that this kind of work, although good, is not really sustainable in our modern society points out that maybe there are flaws in the system. In reality, it is in most cases more profitable to lock down your software; but although this brings you personally more benefits it does harm society so it seems as though a lot of the incentives in the system are misplaced, because the socio-economic system should probably allow for open source software to be more desirable to produce than closed-source one. So in this sense, why wouldn't we want for producing FOSS to be sustainable? It's a legitimate question and a legitimate critique imo. Again, only if you view FOSS as truly desirable. I think a lot of times people fall into the trap of not really understanding where a statement is coming from; it's important to think about what are the ideas behind one or another statement. If you're a very pragmatic people you will look at reality and construct from there, but if you're a more idealistic person then you're going to construct from where you'd like to be and not from where you are.

jerojero 4y ago

Well... I don't think things are that simple. Is open source software (OSS) something that benefits society more than closed source software (CSS) ? That's a big question, I think a lot of people consider that yes OSS is better for society. A software that is accesible by many, even those that don't have the means to afford a paid alternative can change someone's life. But then the fact that this kind of work, although good, is not really sustainable in our modern society points out that maybe there are flaws in the system. In reality, it is in most cases more profitable to lock down your software; but although this brings you personally more benefits it does harm society so it seems as though a lot of the incentives in the system are misplaced, because the socio-economic system should probably allow for open source software to be more desirable to produce than closed-source one. So in this sense, why wouldn't we want for producing FOSS to be sustainable? It's a legitimate question and a legitimate critique imo. Again, only if you view FOSS as truly desirable. I think a lot of times people fall into the trap of not really understanding where a statement is coming from; it's important to think about what are the ideas behind one or another statement. If you're a very pragmatic people you will look at reality and construct from there, but if you're a more idealistic person then you're going to construct from where you'd like to be and not from where you are.