Development quotes of the week [LWN.net]

I guess this decision to ship all of them was made in case a GNOME user ended up on a desert island, and once saved by a passing ship after 10 years, they could be able to say: "this is the text editor I use daily, this is the text editor I use in the holidays, and that’s the text editor I will never use".

— Emmanuele Bassi

I'm concerned about the perception that it's impossible for development of free software to be financially self supporting, and that the only way to handle this is to develop new licenses that forbid certain use cases. There's a real problem where individual developers are left with little reward for developing code that giant commercial enterprises depend on, but we're largely seeing this push come from venture capital firms who just want a larger return on their investment. The free software community needs to come up with an answer to this that doesn't involve trying to extort money out of companies in order for them to be able to legally exercise the freedoms that free software should guarantee, but I don't know what that answer is yet.

— Matthew Garrett (Thanks to Paul Wise)

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social safety nets and economic hybridism

Posted Jan 4, 2019 4:44 UTC (Fri) by Garak (guest, #99377) [Link] (2 responses)

I'm concerned about the perception that it's impossible for development of free software to be financially self supporting,

First, this is a bit of a strawman going with 'impossible' versus 'really difficult, as in making a living as an (pro)athlete difficult'. I.e. it is that difficult and evangelists of F(L)OSS shouldn't be propping up illusions to the contrary.

There's a real problem where individual developers are left with little reward for developing code that giant commercial enterprises depend on,

That's only debateably a problem. Obviously one first discounts the idea that if the developers went Randianly 'on strike' that the giant commercial enterprises would be seriously effected. They wouldn't, they'd adapt slightly and business more or less as usual would commence. The implication is developers somehow being exploited in a bad way. But this is volunteer work (to the extent it might not be).

The free software community needs to come up with an answer to this

And there is a side of the debate that says 'no, the free software community doesn't need to come up with an answer to this'. The better path I would suggest is an underlying capitalism/communism hybrid approach issue, i.e. basic income. I.e. I'm of the sort that believes a better solution to raising the minimum wage, is to lower it to 0, but have an alternate social safety net such that the people making 0 or $0.01/hr don't depend on that income for their basic needs (not rotting to death in the streets). I'm basically all for the liberty to go nuts being as creative as you want with newly authored licenses. Let it be darwinian survival of the fittest, but lets also have an _independent_ social mechanism to avoid the poor people rotting in the streets (or out of site ghettos) issue. It's not like Social Security and Medicare aren't already part of a grand capitalism/socialism hybridism bargain/balance. Also, it's clear that much of the existing fabric of F(L)OSS developers gaining financial self support via their work is through the inherent social networking in the process. I.e. getting noticed/drafted by existing profitable corporations. Now one might wish to see large existing profitable corporations built on nothing but F(L)OSS development, but... wishful thinking is often unwise.

social safety nets and economic hybridism

Posted Jan 4, 2019 9:22 UTC (Fri) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (1 responses)

> That's only debateably a problem. Obviously one first discounts the idea that if the developers went Randianly 'on strike' that the giant commercial enterprises would be seriously effected.
Most of OpenSource developers are now employed by giant commercial enterprises.

social safety nets and economic hybridism

Posted Jan 5, 2019 3:25 UTC (Sat) by Garak (guest, #99377) [Link]

for those, the issue then boils down to the not as narrative worthy "a group of people would like a raise in their paycheck". I for one always liked that New York politician whose name or party name was "the rent is too damn high".