If your OSS isn’t about politics then it’s just you doing free labor for companies.
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@petrillic I had someone say they'd never use Pidgin because some of the protocol plugins break TOS's... Like, yeah, that's the point, to give users the option of having an alternative... 🙄
@petrillic I once spent a lot of time helping to fix bugs *specifically* in a bespoke component used by a single hosting vendor, simply because it was open source, and then it dawned on me…uh, wait a minute?! Why are they not paying me my standard consulting rates to work on this shit?
I stoped using the hosting company entirely not long after (for a numbers of reasons). They rhyme with "Tercel". 😄
@petrillic Basically. You make free software because it's a way to reverse the trend of concentration of power (and wealth).
Linus' stance seems quite similar to chefs exploiting free labor from apprentices because they get to work for famous people in the sector, Apprentices also accept working long hours with little to no wage, because it's part of their learning and a price to pay to learn from someone who allegedly has above average skills.
People letting the wealthy to make profit from their work without paying anything do not understand what is all this about.
@petrillic @jlink hmm, no.
Most OSS projects are tools. There are only a few real end-user apps. My experience in OSS projects is that most users and companies are interested in cost sharing. The OSS project itself is almost never the part you make real money with. It's just a tool to make your business projects with. And sharing the costs to develop this tool and getting free test users is most times highly welcome.
@struberg @petrillic @jlink Huh? I use tons of "end-user" apps which are open source, including the very social media client I am currently typing on (shoutout to @Tuba)!
@jaredwhite @petrillic @jlink @Tuba They exist of course. But the vast majority of OSS projects are tools and libraries.
Even OpenOffice (néé StarOffice) started out as just a showcase for StarBase, which was a library for developing multi-OS applications in the 1990 (I used it a lot back in the mid 90s).
