Open-source is not noble(outspeaker.com)
2 pointsby onesandofgrain6 hours ago4 comments
  • shiroyasha6 hours ago
    That’s a fair point! For me, though, open-source was my gateway into the world of engineering, so I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for it. Without it, I would be nothing.
    • onesandofgrain6 hours ago
      See my comment below and the link to my writeout, FOSS is cool, but completely unsustainable. It's like slavery, but worse.
  • polliog6 hours ago
    It depends on how you define noble. I like to think that an open source product can also inspire confidence in those who use it
    • onesandofgrain6 hours ago
      Perhaps it does, but that doesn't justify giving it out for free, especially not in today's day and age
      • polliog6 hours ago
        Making a project open source does not mean that it has to be free. There are many open source projects that also sell services that are not free, such as Sentry, SigNoz, Redis, etc.

        One “noble” thing you can do is choose the right license and restrict commercial use unless paid for.

        • onesandofgrain6 hours ago
          That's just a pipedream.

          Amazon stole elasticsearch (opensearch), apple made appstore from the ideas of cydia/installer.app and IBM gutted Redhat (Linux) and are now selling it to Enterprises for their more fancy security. Big corps will just steal your FOSS and repurpose it, bundle it up, maybe obfuscate it a little bit here and there and resell it. Just imagine the sheer volume of FOSS running meta,google,aws and all the FANGS. Licenses dont mean anything, are easy to work around and besides, you can't fight these companies, especially not prove anything major.

          • jacquesm6 hours ago
            And if not that they'll comply with the letter but not the spirit so you're going to have to send them snail mail or fax to receive a copy of the open source parts but it won't build because they have a whole slew of requirements that you'll never be able to meet.

            Malicious compliance.

            Most recent example: Rigol.

            • onesandofgrain6 hours ago
              Exactly.
              • fuzzfactor5 hours ago
                Yup, I agree with you 100% here.

                This is exactly what should not be possible to happen.

          • salawat5 hours ago
            Would you believe I said the same damn thing after initially joining here almost a decade ago, and got karma bombed at the time for even suggesting the possibility.

            Funny how times have changed.

  • onesandofgrain6 hours ago
    @jacquesm exactly
  • fuzzfactor6 hours ago
    It is what you make it.

    As long as you give what you can realistically spare, there should be no complaint about not getting compensation later.