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Linux will politically continue to fail to extract needed monetary support from first world countries and mega corps principally dependant on it. In particular

Linux will politically continue to fail to extract needed monetary support from first world countries and mega corps principally dependant on it. In particular, my libraries and national security concerns. The US government has its underwear in a bunch over various Chinese sources hardware, but continues to let a bunch of hobbyists maintain the software. I almost think it is time to hold these massive orgs accountable by merging targeted vulnerabilities and performance bombs unless they start paying up. Microsoft and other monopolized software companies have no issue using whatever tactics are necessary to shale the revenue from software dependent/ addicted orgs.

not2b 2y ago
Most Linux kernel contributors are professionals who are paid for their work. They aren't hobbyists. However, there are quite a few critically important tools and libraries that are essentially maintained by a volunteer as a hobby, and yes, that's a risk.
- SoftTalker 2y ago
  Hence the observation that "single-maintainer projects (or subsystems, or packages) will be seen as risky".
- AtlasBarfed 2y ago
  There are trillions of dollars of budgeted organizations dependent on Linux. I'm talking about serious hundreds of millions funded foundations on par with windows at least to some scale. The US government should get forking over tens of millions. Hell, it should be part of the AWS contract with the government that they fund Linux foundation that tune. Everyone crying over some reputation smear on Linux programmers are missing the goddamn point, especially on the desktop front. If the US wants to continue to have wide open vulnerable consumer networks, then I guess windows will make us fundamentally vulnerable. The US military needs a consumer tier secure Linux desktop. And if rather it wasn't android corporate spyware because otherwise that is what we are getting. I guess I just answered my question. Android for everyone.
nindalf 2y ago
Yeah bashing big tech is an evergreen source of upvotes. Especially since it’s not always clear how something was funded. Take io_uring for example, an async I/O subsystem for Linux. Could you say offhand if this was funded by some big tech company or not? I’ll bet most people couldn’t. Another example - everyone knows the xz attack. How many people can name offhand the company where Andres Freund worked? He was a full time employee of a tech company working on Postgres when he found this attack. It’s always worth discussing how we can improve financial situation for maintainers in important open source projects. Hyperbole like your comment is useless at best and counterproductive at worst.
jahewson 2y ago
Per Wikipedia: “An analysis of the Linux kernel in 2017 showed that well over 85% of the code was developed by programmers who are being paid for their work” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux
- The_Colonel 2y ago
  I would bet the percentage increased since then.
spencerflem 2y ago
If you don't want corporations using your software, don't put it out in a license that invites them to do so. (illegal scraping by ai notwithstanding)
- guappa 2y ago
  I want them to use it, I don't want them opening issues to request new features.

not2b 2y ago

Most Linux kernel contributors are professionals who are paid for their work. They aren't hobbyists. However, there are quite a few critically important tools and libraries that are essentially maintained by a volunteer as a hobby, and yes, that's a risk.

SoftTalker 2y ago
Hence the observation that "single-maintainer projects (or subsystems, or packages) will be seen as risky".
AtlasBarfed 2y ago
There are trillions of dollars of budgeted organizations dependent on Linux. I'm talking about serious hundreds of millions funded foundations on par with windows at least to some scale. The US government should get forking over tens of millions. Hell, it should be part of the AWS contract with the government that they fund Linux foundation that tune. Everyone crying over some reputation smear on Linux programmers are missing the goddamn point, especially on the desktop front. If the US wants to continue to have wide open vulnerable consumer networks, then I guess windows will make us fundamentally vulnerable. The US military needs a consumer tier secure Linux desktop. And if rather it wasn't android corporate spyware because otherwise that is what we are getting. I guess I just answered my question. Android for everyone.

nindalf 2y ago

Yeah bashing big tech is an evergreen source of upvotes. Especially since it’s not always clear how something was funded. Take io_uring for example, an async I/O subsystem for Linux. Could you say offhand if this was funded by some big tech company or not? I’ll bet most people couldn’t. Another example - everyone knows the xz attack. How many people can name offhand the company where Andres Freund worked? He was a full time employee of a tech company working on Postgres when he found this attack. It’s always worth discussing how we can improve financial situation for maintainers in important open source projects. Hyperbole like your comment is useless at best and counterproductive at worst.

jahewson 2y ago

Per Wikipedia: “An analysis of the Linux kernel in 2017 showed that well over 85% of the code was developed by programmers who are being paid for their work” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux

The_Colonel 2y ago
I would bet the percentage increased since then.

spencerflem 2y ago

If you don't want corporations using your software, don't put it out in a license that invites them to do so. (illegal scraping by ai notwithstanding)

guappa 2y ago
I want them to use it, I don't want them opening issues to request new features.