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I love HN. Read an article that raises a reasonable point about a project’s license, and that project’s author shows up to announce they were convinced and cha
by voakbasda 1mo ago
I love HN. Read an article that raises a reasonable point about a project’s license, and that project’s author shows up to announce they were convinced and changed the license accordingly. Repo was updated 5 minutes ago.
It’s things like this that give me hope for the world.
- stackghost 1mo agoNot to be Debbie Downer but software licensing has no effect on what matters to billions of people. We are facing very real global and societal issues that people on this site are actively exacerbating, like disinformation and climate change. If a dude changing an inconsequential text file on GitHub gives you hope for the world, then please broaden your perspective.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- kaonwarb 1mo agoMaking one small corner of the world a little bit better is a good thing. There's not much use in complaining that it's not as big of an impact as could hypothetically be achieved on some larger issues.
- stackghost 1mo agoIt's things like this that rob my of my hope for the world.
- chermi 1mo agoLol. Someone liking this change is stupid for letting it lift their outlook, right? How stupid is it then to let this comment rob your hope.
- Barbing 1mo ago:) Alternative reply to lighten mood in odd thread: Not to be Debbie Downer but making one small corner of the world a little bit better has no effect on what matters to billions of people. We are facing very real global and societal issues that people are actively exacerbating. If a dude explaining that there’s not much use in complaining robs you of hope for the world, then please broaden your perspective.
- mrec 1mo ago“He who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars. General good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer.” -- William Blake
- rewgs 1mo agoYou are indeed being a Debbie Downer.
- kian 1mo agoSo I'm guessing you don't do anything except what matters to billions of people? Always 100% fully generalized contributions, never making your local world a better place? Your only local contributions being to tell off people who are grateful that their lives are materially improved by someone else's smaller actions... You must be beloved by your community.
- stackghost 1mo ago[flagged]
- hnfong 1mo agoYet here you are, posting self-congratulatory comments about how you don't post self-congratulatory things. IMHO this is even less meaningful/impactful than the comment that you objected to.
- rpdillon 1mo agoI don't think the point you're trying to make improves the quality of the discussion here. If a downstream project laments a license and the author changes it, that's good communication and cooperation. Complaining that people are happy with the outcome isn't productive.
- literallyroy 1mo agoI saw someone smile at the park the other day, do you think you could talk to them for me?
- yard2010 1mo agoNot GP but I feel like that's kinda their point - the fact that we still have this platform to collaborate in such an organic way is truly remarkable and must not be taken for granted.
- inigyou 1mo agoActually a lot of that bad stuff billionaires are doing is enabled by MIT licensed software. Like, device lockdown is illegal with GPL3
- LinuxIsntVeryGo 1mo agoPeople are concerned about having homes to live in and having food to eat. They aren't concerned about 'device lockdown'. Try to see the bigger picture.
- inigyou 1mo agoDevice lockdown is why our biggest billionaires are billionaires. It's how they made their money and still make it.
- inquirerGeneral 1mo ago[dead]
- fg137 1mo agoIf Apple starts allowing sideloading apps they'll still get at least 95% of their revenue today. Just look at the s***show on Android.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- sicktriple 1mo agoThis is verifiably false. Without copyleft licensing like the GPL or permissive licensing like MIT and Apache we literally would not have the internet, or it would be somehow even more wildly dystopian and proprietary than it already is.
- LinuxIsntVeryGo 1mo ago[flagged]
- sophrosyne42 1mo agoYou must be fun at parties
- LastTrain 1mo agoI think you like very much to be a debbie downer
- MollyRealized 1mo agoMargaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
- LtWorf 1mo agoI'm not a scab, so I won't use permissive licenses on my unpaid projects. People who want to use them at work can cry me a river.
- 9dev 1mo agoSame. Started to adopt AGPLv3 for every new project. With AI sucking up all the CV-driven contributors, it’s time to take back open source as a joyful hobby for nerds that enjoy programming and sharing their creations with one another, instead of being corpo stans that do free support for shareholder driven enterprises.
- threecheese 1mo agoDo you think AGPL is going to stop a crawler from incorporating your work into their training set? I don’t. There are zero meaningful consequences atm. That being said, I’m with you in spirit and in action, but realistically it’s pointless outside of living in accordance with your values. Edit: Re-reading that, i just told you that your principles are pointless, and thats fucked up and wrong. I’m going to live in accordance with mine and not delete this, but apologies.
- lostlogin 1mo agoWhat a thread. Maybe there is hope for the internet?
- arcanemachiner 1mo agoThat's kinda how I'm thinking about this in terms of licenzing my upcoming projects. The code is just going to be laundered anyways, so why bother putting on a license like AGPL that might just hinder adoption?
- edoceo 1mo agoI went through similar thoughts. Settled on just dropping everything under MIT. I'm using AI assistance a bunch, nothing fully vibe coded (yet) so what's it really matter? My "novel" approach to BOM line item attributes?
- tito 1mo agoNeat, I learned about copyleft thanks to this discussion. Will consider copyleft for my future projects! Open source that creates more open source.