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No. Freedom includes the freedom to do what is convenient. The tolerance of inconvenience is a practical argument. If you have non-free dependencies, the most
by roenxi 3y ago
No. Freedom includes the freedom to do what is convenient.
The tolerance of inconvenience is a practical argument. If you have non-free dependencies, the most likely scenario is that sooner or later the dependency will kill support for the project and you have no legal recourse. Eg, if a project uses Discord, at some point it will have to move away to some other technology/protocol. If it uses git, the project won't ever have to move away from git. Those predictions can be made purely from analysing the license.
Since a move is inevitable, it really should make more sense to use FOSS protocols and clients from the get go. People don't though, and I don't pretend to understand the reasons. But what I can confidently say that Discord is going to become inhospitable for the project eventually.
- LightFog 3y agoThis doesn’t seem to cover the ‘social’ or community side of software freedom though. Sure you have the freedom to make life tough for your future self for short term gain - but by embracing non-free software you are ultimately limiting the freedom of others via network effects and lock-ins. Exactly what has happened with GitHub.
- rapnie 3y agoExactly, ones convenient choice undermines and erodes collective freedoms. In FOSS you 'vote' with your choices. In an analogy with politics this lack of consideration of freedoms and values, and applying of critical thinking may lead to freedom eventually being eradicated for good (or a very long time). In politics unfortunately we see people time and again voting democratically for their own oppression and lack of choice.
- raverbashing 3y agoYes Discord eventually won't be a good choice. Eventually. Then people will just move People are talking about Discord like Freenode didn't crap on everyone recently Meanwhile, sure, feel free to use an OSS solution then realize nobody cares
- roenxi 3y agoI was thinking of Freenode when I wrote that. The changeover process is using a different server - the client doesn't change and nor does the protocol. The switch from Discord will be a lot more disruptive. Everyone needs to find a new client and the protocol will be different. Ie, the entire ecosystem burns instead of one minor component like a DNS hostname. And that is the upside of OSS. When Freenode caused people trouble they all just walked calmly to a new server. Case closed. Little of value was lost.