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I'd argue (as would most of the free software community) the creation of proprietary software is entirely bullshit. Because you have to eventually reinvent it w

I'd argue (as would most of the free software community) the creation of proprietary software is entirely bullshit. Because you have to eventually reinvent it with either permissive or copyleft licenses to just avoid the huge black hole that is legal bullshit and bureaucracy around licensing rights to a number that is not even scarce once its made. Game engines are a counterexample. There are probably dozens of others. I'm trying to figure out what people are arguing against. Would you help me understand? Let's assume your argument is true: creation of most proprietary software is entirely bullshit. Ok, so?

hippich 13y ago
I would argue with you that games are not most of the software. Even if it would be, it would benefit a lot from standardized game engines which could be used by workers of art (designers, writers, etc) to build creative games to entertain people. Most software today is basically CRUD and reporting on top of it. Sadly, all this crap re-implemented so many times each day instead of focusing on inventing. How many corporate time spent on creating login form? retrieve password form? input form validation? In my short life I seen it re-implemented so many times already (and often very poorly btw.) This is one example of engineering BS job I mentioned above. Or create own protocols only to avoid competition and lock in customer. And there are people who actually engineer it all day long every day. And customers who essentially paying for this person's BS work. It almost feels like corporations are interested in hiring as many people as possible, force them to do non-standardized stuff just to be able to siphon money though corporation bank account to be able to take a cut. It totally make sense to do that for corporation, but for their customers? I am not sure... From humanity standpoint as a whole, there is place for proprietary software, but way-way less prevalent as it is right now IMHO.
zanny 13y ago
The only game engines that have lasted decades are the id ones. Coincidentally, they are about the only engines open sourced. But even today, games (of foss and not variety) are still being developed for them. Directly. All the proprietary engines get iterated on, they keep (usually) the same core, but all that old code has gone to rot and waste because of its proprietary nature. Every game developer is reinventing huge amounts of the wheel. Or more particularly engine developers. Because they all in house whole stack do the thing themselves, rather than work together, and waste everyones time. > creation of most proprietary software is entirely bullshit. Ok, so? So the OP was talking about how software is rarely a job without being paid to look busy when actually coding. But really, by reinventing the same wheel thousands of times over, because everyone wants to be a literal 3 year old hiding their toys in their own sandbox and not letting the other kids share with them, it is all a huge waste of time. In the same way that we have perpetual employment of a lot of people for no reason than to keep them in an office to justify giving them money even if they aren't productive, IP as a whole exists for the same purpose in the modern information age - it is wasting everyones time to add false valuation to something that should not have any. I'm not saying information isn't valuable, but individual copies and licenses and crap like that are not - they are artificial, to prop up a false economy, so it is all bullshit.

hippich 13y ago

I would argue with you that games are not most of the software. Even if it would be, it would benefit a lot from standardized game engines which could be used by workers of art (designers, writers, etc) to build creative games to entertain people. Most software today is basically CRUD and reporting on top of it. Sadly, all this crap re-implemented so many times each day instead of focusing on inventing. How many corporate time spent on creating login form? retrieve password form? input form validation? In my short life I seen it re-implemented so many times already (and often very poorly btw.) This is one example of engineering BS job I mentioned above. Or create own protocols only to avoid competition and lock in customer. And there are people who actually engineer it all day long every day. And customers who essentially paying for this person's BS work. It almost feels like corporations are interested in hiring as many people as possible, force them to do non-standardized stuff just to be able to siphon money though corporation bank account to be able to take a cut. It totally make sense to do that for corporation, but for their customers? I am not sure... From humanity standpoint as a whole, there is place for proprietary software, but way-way less prevalent as it is right now IMHO.

zanny 13y ago

The only game engines that have lasted decades are the id ones. Coincidentally, they are about the only engines open sourced. But even today, games (of foss and not variety) are still being developed for them. Directly. All the proprietary engines get iterated on, they keep (usually) the same core, but all that old code has gone to rot and waste because of its proprietary nature. Every game developer is reinventing huge amounts of the wheel. Or more particularly engine developers. Because they all in house whole stack do the thing themselves, rather than work together, and waste everyones time. > creation of most proprietary software is entirely bullshit. Ok, so? So the OP was talking about how software is rarely a job without being paid to look busy when actually coding. But really, by reinventing the same wheel thousands of times over, because everyone wants to be a literal 3 year old hiding their toys in their own sandbox and not letting the other kids share with them, it is all a huge waste of time. In the same way that we have perpetual employment of a lot of people for no reason than to keep them in an office to justify giving them money even if they aren't productive, IP as a whole exists for the same purpose in the modern information age - it is wasting everyones time to add false valuation to something that should not have any. I'm not saying information isn't valuable, but individual copies and licenses and crap like that are not - they are artificial, to prop up a false economy, so it is all bullshit.