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Great read. I learned through this about the Mullvad controversy, and I think I’ll stop using their services, which sucks because I think they were really ahead in the game when it comes to their privacy features. Oh well.
Open source isn’t counterculture anymore, sorry but it has gotten too big to fit in your backpocket.
I understand you disagree with some of the people using and writing it now… but if that’s the case, perhaps communities using a different kind of license would be better suited for you if you cannot get along with them?
I feel like the author is trying to point out some kind of hypocrisy while also feeding into one themselves… if open source was supposed to be for everyone, well, that includes people you don’t like. And you’re not going to change their opinions any more than they can change yours.
You’ve fallen for the paradox of tolerance, OSS version.
The author, and you, were mistaken: OS is not for everyone. It’s not about whether I or anyone else “likes” them. Nazis and corpos don’t come to software communities with honest intent. They lie and mislead to gain power and control. Then they consolidate power and exploit their control for personal gain.
That isn’t “political” it’s predatory, and people who treat it like politics are running cover for the exploiters whether they know it or not.
I don’t want to change their shitty opinions. I want them banned from our communities so their corrosive influence can’t cause further harm.
I’d argue that GPL is still counterculture, it’s just that permissive licensing is more common these days and both are conflated into single umbrella of free software. Permissive licensing culture made way into traditional free software spaces like Linux and we’re seeing results of that now.
I’ll be happy for the day people stop believing foss is a story of ethical philanthropy and instead understand its macroeconomic value to consortiums who need technology that isn’t owned by a monopoly.
I’m glad this is getting a lot of push back. The FOSS community should be a welcoming collaborative space, but such an environment is not possible when bigotry is is tolerated.
