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Authoritarian regimes are actually correlated with the popularity of free software. Russia and China both have government-mandated forks of Linux. Chinese comp

Authoritarian regimes are actually correlated with the popularity of free software. Russia and China both have government-mandated forks of Linux. Chinese companies like Linaro, Huawei and Alibaba contribute to Linux kernel very actively. When the war against Ukraine escalated 1.5 years ago, proprietary software companies like Microsoft, Adobe and Apple quit Russia due to international sanctions and reputational risks. Since then, pretty sure free software became even more popular over there.

gavinhoward 3y ago
Remember that while authoritarian regimes may use Free Software themselves, that doesn't mean they'll freely let their citizens use it.
- Const-me 3y ago
  Russia and China let their citizens use whatever software they please, be it commercial, pirated, or free. By itself, software is harmless to these autocrats. These regimes care about telecom, not software. Both Russia and China restrict usage of the internet with a combination of technical, legal, and repressive methods.
prepend 3y ago
Hitler liked dogs too. Just because dictators are correlated to dogs, that doesn’t mean dogs bear any blame for dictators.
- Const-me 3y ago
  Yes, indeed. And it doesn’t mean promoting or discouraging dogs helps removing dictators from power.
  - prepend 3y ago
    It does if dogs are causal to having thriving, independent family units, individuals, and communities.
    - Const-me 3y ago
      As soon as dogs will start causing noticeable changes to the society, they will be banned and dog ownership criminalized. By the way, last week Russians signed a new law which makes collaboration with an unregistered foreign non-profit organization a crime, punishable by 2 years in jail: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-unregstered-ngos-putin-decree/32534674.html https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-unregstered-ngos-putin-decree... Pretty sure a contribution to an open-source project can be viewed as such collaboration. It seems unlike using software, Russian government views any international collaboration as a potential treat.
roncesvalles 3y ago
This is more about hurting Microsoft/America than supporting free software. IBM was one of the earliest major supporters of Linux and, some would argue, the main reason for its rise from a basement project to a formidable alternative to Windows.

gavinhoward 3y ago

Remember that while authoritarian regimes may use Free Software themselves, that doesn't mean they'll freely let their citizens use it.

Const-me 3y ago
Russia and China let their citizens use whatever software they please, be it commercial, pirated, or free. By itself, software is harmless to these autocrats. These regimes care about telecom, not software. Both Russia and China restrict usage of the internet with a combination of technical, legal, and repressive methods.

prepend 3y ago

Hitler liked dogs too. Just because dictators are correlated to dogs, that doesn’t mean dogs bear any blame for dictators.

Const-me 3y ago
Yes, indeed. And it doesn’t mean promoting or discouraging dogs helps removing dictators from power.
- prepend 3y ago
  It does if dogs are causal to having thriving, independent family units, individuals, and communities.
  - Const-me 3y ago
    As soon as dogs will start causing noticeable changes to the society, they will be banned and dog ownership criminalized. By the way, last week Russians signed a new law which makes collaboration with an unregistered foreign non-profit organization a crime, punishable by 2 years in jail: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-unregstered-ngos-putin-decree/32534674.html https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-unregstered-ngos-putin-decree... Pretty sure a contribution to an open-source project can be viewed as such collaboration. It seems unlike using software, Russian government views any international collaboration as a potential treat.

roncesvalles 3y ago

This is more about hurting Microsoft/America than supporting free software. IBM was one of the earliest major supporters of Linux and, some would argue, the main reason for its rise from a basement project to a formidable alternative to Windows.