4 ms·

Open-source is where dreams go to die

6 points by kiyanwang 2y ago

not_your_vase 2y ago
Oh, screw that. Open source has been about one thing: write software that solves your specific problem, and make it available so others can use it, and also extend it to solve their own specific problems. That problem to solve can be technical, or simply just the joy of creation. That's it. A part of OSS developers do it for fun, and the entitlement of their users is secondary. Another big part does OSS development because their employer pays them to do so. At 5 PM they can stop caring about their users. The rest is just unneeded politics, which has nothing to do with OSS.
rekabis 2y ago
If I could get sufficient remuneration from my time expended in any open-source software, I would. I would leap at the chance to devote my life to open source software. Unfortunately, I live in a capitalistic hellhole where I am forced to be profitable to someone else in order to retain a place to live, obtain food to eat and clothing to wear, and pay the bills that are required to participate in society. And all of this hamster-treadmilling for mere pennies on every dollar of labour I produce leaves me with vanishingly little time or energy left over for anything that could benefit society or the community. Honestly, we have more than sufficient wealth in our society to ensure that everyone is clothed, fed, and housed with plenty left over, but it is structured to ensure that almost all of that generated wealth goes to those who already have obscene amounts of wealth. And those people aren’t the ones contributing directly to open source projects -- because they cannot directly extract obscene amounts of wealth from it without making it closed-source.
- OKRainbowKid 2y ago
  A depressing, but relatable perspective. Makes me imagine a world where the metrics politics use to assess success actually align with societal well-being.
- musicale 2y ago
  > hamster-treadmilling for mere pennies on every dollar of labour I produce Oh, you noticed! > structured to ensure that almost all of that generated wealth goes to those who already have obscene amounts of wealth The most important function of business management is to ensure that value flows up the pyramid rather than down. One advantage of capitalism vs. feudalism or prior systems is that the capitalist nobility who own the (land, factories, companies, robots, etc.) is neither directly hereditary nor based on military conquest. This allows it to claim fairness even though it is mathematically impossible for more than a few people at the bottom of the pyramid to ascend to the top.

6 points by kiyanwang 2y ago

Oh, screw that. Open source has been about one thing: write software that solves your specific problem, and make it available so others can use it, and also extend it to solve their own specific problems. That problem to solve can be technical, or simply just the joy of creation. That's it. A part of OSS developers do it for fun, and the entitlement of their users is secondary. Another big part does OSS development because their employer pays them to do so. At 5 PM they can stop caring about their users. The rest is just unneeded politics, which has nothing to do with OSS.

rekabis 2y ago

If I could get sufficient remuneration from my time expended in any open-source software, I would. I would leap at the chance to devote my life to open source software. Unfortunately, I live in a capitalistic hellhole where I am forced to be profitable to someone else in order to retain a place to live, obtain food to eat and clothing to wear, and pay the bills that are required to participate in society. And all of this hamster-treadmilling for mere pennies on every dollar of labour I produce leaves me with vanishingly little time or energy left over for anything that could benefit society or the community. Honestly, we have more than sufficient wealth in our society to ensure that everyone is clothed, fed, and housed with plenty left over, but it is structured to ensure that almost all of that generated wealth goes to those who already have obscene amounts of wealth. And those people aren’t the ones contributing directly to open source projects -- because they cannot directly extract obscene amounts of wealth from it without making it closed-source.

OKRainbowKid 2y ago
A depressing, but relatable perspective. Makes me imagine a world where the metrics politics use to assess success actually align with societal well-being.
musicale 2y ago
> hamster-treadmilling for mere pennies on every dollar of labour I produce Oh, you noticed! > structured to ensure that almost all of that generated wealth goes to those who already have obscene amounts of wealth The most important function of business management is to ensure that value flows up the pyramid rather than down. One advantage of capitalism vs. feudalism or prior systems is that the capitalist nobility who own the (land, factories, companies, robots, etc.) is neither directly hereditary nor based on military conquest. This allows it to claim fairness even though it is mathematically impossible for more than a few people at the bottom of the pyramid to ascend to the top.