this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2023
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Free and Open Source Software

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How did the ideology of libre/free software get so politicized?

I've noticed advocates for exclusively for libre software and actively discourage simple open source software for not going far enough, also want censorship of not allowing any proprietary software to be mentioned, and don't allow any critiques of the software they use because it's libre software so there are no faults or bad designs.

I thoroughly enjoy the code purity of what is labelled as libre software, for license I only like the ISC license for freedom. My attitude is if someone changes my code and doesn't give back, it does not harm me or injury me in any way.

I also believe libre software can be used for the surveillance of other people, libre software does not be default mean privacy. How network software is configured in systems that other people don't control, it doesn't matter if it's open source when people have no knowledge of other networks configuration.

On the principal of freedom, I do support the right to develop proprietary software. The fact that it exists does not harm anyone who chooses not to use proprietary software.

It seems the die hard libre software crowd, not open source people but the ones who want to live in an only GPLv3+ world can start to live in ther own world, their own bubble, and become disconnected losing perspective that which software other people use is not something that should affect your day in any way. Unless someone is both a network engineer and does infosec or something similiar, they're not in a position to understand fully appreciate how network protocols matter more than a license and code availability.

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[โ€“] xyguy@startrek.website 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I will gladly admit that I don't use BSD nearly as much as Linux and know far less about it but I think Apple forking and close-sourcing a version of BSD is a pretty good example of what you said doesn't happen in BSD.

With all that being said, that's what the BSD license allows for and so there's no issue with anyone doing so.

Interestingly, Apple as well as the 2 others I mentioned that ship BSD based operating systems sell hardware meant to cooperate nicely with the software that they "give away". Red Hat and other commercial Linucies? Linuxes? Linnii? often have a support or software license agreement that makes them money.

If you want to talk about anything to do with BSD, you can't do it with a Linux mindset using Linux terminology if you don't want to lead with your prejudices and ignorance as soon as you start talking.

As a first step starting point, there is no such think as a BSD distribution or "distro". TrueNAS and pfSense are not and have never been a distribution.

I'm not going to give you all of the info or explain what they are, I'll leave it at that for you to choose to dismiss it and stay ignorant or read and learn, expand your thinking, and stop crossing one operating system with a different operating system.