Again: Free Software vs Open Source

Posted Dec 7, 2021 18:09 UTC (Tue) by cagrazia (guest, #124754)
In reply to: Linux Foundation 2021 annual report by donbarry
Parent article: Linux Foundation 2021 annual report

> Free Software movement

I wouldn't put the Linux Foundation in the Free Software category. But I, substantially, agree with you.

Again: Free Software vs Open Source

Posted Dec 7, 2021 20:21 UTC (Tue) by donbarry (guest, #10485) [Link] (3 responses)

Apologies if I was not clear on the point, neither do I. Certainly the big money behind the Linux Foundation and its lavishly paid executives look at these licenses not from the point of view of software freedom, but only of how to twist them advantageously for their individual profits, which means en passant burying the conversation that started it all, on the values inherent in a mass community of software which can be studied and improved and remain in the commons, along with the tools that run it.

Again: Free Software vs Open Source

Posted Dec 8, 2021 15:16 UTC (Wed) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] (2 responses)

> Certainly the big money behind the Linux Foundation and its lavishly paid executives

“Lavishly paid”? Compared to what? Most (if not all) if these guys can join Google or Microsoft, agree to develop proprietary software and earn 10x more.

Doesn't look like lavish payment to me when you earn 10% of what you can earn in the other place.

> look at these licenses not from the point of view of software freedom

Of course they do. They embrace tit-for-tat principle. It looks like a good deal to them and they support it.

What they refuse to do… is to embrace crazy goal of a world without nonfree software (not my words, it's very openly stated goal of free software movement) — but then, Linus was always pretty clearly against that goal, even refused to add “or any later version” to the copyright note because he was afraid that FSF zealotry may prompt them to destroy the nice balance which GPLv2 embodied… thus it would be very strange to see Linux Foundation to push in that direction.

Now, if FSF Foundation started paying similar sums… then you may have had a point.

But Linux was never about free software. It was always about open source. From, basically, the day one. From times where “open source” term haven't existed and people talked about “business-friendly free software” instead.

Note that majority of free software is made by such people. RMS may have been genius hacker when he was still writing the code, but GCC have become ubiquitous not because of his efforts, but because of Cygnus.

And other, significant “FSF-owned” projects were made by such people, too. Roland McGrath, Ulrich Drepper and many others… they weren't trying to bring a world without nonfree software. That was never an aspiration, even when they were working for FSF.

Again: Free Software vs Open Source

Posted Dec 9, 2021 13:12 UTC (Thu) by tlamp (subscriber, #108540) [Link] (1 responses)

> “Lavishly paid”? Compared to what? Most (if not all) if these guys can join Google or Microsoft, agree to develop proprietary software and earn 10x more.

Out of those list of 20 people only two people do actual developments, the others are marketing and bureaucracy that mostly spent their time with praising all the proprietary companies that are LF members... So no, only two could do some actual meaningful work in developing proprietary software, and I'd like to think that neither Linus nor GKH would do so out of principle.

Again: Free Software vs Open Source

Posted Dec 9, 2021 13:18 UTC (Thu) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

> Out of those list of 20 people only two people do actual developments, the others are marketing and bureaucracy that mostly spent their time with praising all the proprietary companies that are LF members...

IOW: the guys who would be paid big bucks for the development of software.

The guys who can actually compile something are not the ones who get top bucks, you know.