this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2022
2 points (100.0% liked)

Open Source

31031 readers
465 users here now

All about open source! Feel free to ask questions, and share news, and interesting stuff!

Useful Links

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon from opensource.org, but we are not affiliated with them.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

This is where the supply chain metaphor — and it is just that, a metaphor — breaks down. If a microchip vendor enters an agreement and fails to uphold it, the vendor’s customers have recourse. If an open source maintainer leaves a project unmaintained for whatever reason, that’s not the maintainer’s fault, and the companies that relied on their work are the ones who get to solve their problems in the future. Using the term “supply chain” here dehumanizes the labor involved in developing and maintaining software as a hobby.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] pingveno@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

From what I understand, the GNU philosophy around selling dates from when distribution costs were substantial. Picture manufacturing and distributing CD's full of packages. It's just a totally different world now in terms of how software is distributed, free or otherwise.

[–] hfkldjbuq@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It's because rms needed money for remaining relatively independent from influence to implement the free operating system. Sending tapes for some bucks was just a means to that

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/rms-nyu-2001-transcript.html

it is not a different world. capitalism is still here, and it influences everything including developers ability to maintain their projects, with or without profit-driven influence.