Given the current rise in popularity of FOSS programs (GNU/Linux, Mastodon, Lemmy, etc.), one would have to be optimistic. However, I can't help feeling that a large number of these new users are technologically illiterate, and with them the gates are bein

Name
Subject	Spoiler Image
Comment
File
Embed
Password	(For file deletion.)

File: 1689557429618.png (38.04 KB, 746x624, 140.png)

In which direction is FOSS moving? Shenzen 07/17/23 (Mon) 01:30:29 No.2486

Given the current rise in popularity of FOSS programs (GNU/Linux, Mastodon, Lemmy, etc.), one would have to be optimistic. However, I can't help feeling that a large number of these new users are technologically illiterate, and with them the gates are being opened wide for big tech and its corruption. Facebook is already actively polluting the Fediverse with their proprietary Threads-app and some FOSS instances are seriously considering not defederating from them. I am therefore seriously concerned that the FOSS concept itself could be corrupted, but hopefully I'm wrong. Does anyone here have any thoughts on this topic?

Cracky 07/18/23 (Tue) 14:48:56 No.2488

I don't think corporation will ruin FOSS, federated apps will definitely be ruined by them though. True FOSS requires being open source and allowing users to modify it as they see fit. That inherently goes against a lot of the spooky stuff corporations like to put in their software. The only way it might be ruined is by copying what some smartphones running Android do, where proprietary additions to FOSS code prevent alterations without voiding the warranty or something similar. And yes, people are getting more tech illiterate day by day.

Cidoku 07/19/23 (Wed) 05:35:24 No.2489

File: 1689744924464.jpg (127.51 KB, 960x1200, sktznwzlemcb1.jpg)

>>2488
But let's just look at the current state of Linux since Microsoft discovered its "love" for the kernel: The quality of the project is declining with each new release, and given its ever-increasing complexity, as well as realistically very small active user base, it's all but impossible that the thing will be forked. Believing that Big Tech will be very successful in undermining FOSS, I don't really, but I'm sure they will at least try, otherwise there will always be a potential threat to their business model.

Shenzen 07/24/23 (Mon) 10:34:05 No.2495

>>2489
In what way did the project quality decrease?

Linux has always had endless forks, that's how it's developed. Plus it is pretty much unavoidable for vendors that need to put stuff in it that upstream won't take.

Guest 07/24/23 (Mon) 10:35:22 No.2496

Open Source is already a corporate corruption of Free Software.

Observer 09/23/23 (Sat) 10:34:54 No.2519

>>2495
>Linux has always had endless forks, that's how it's developed. Plus it is pretty much unavoidable for vendors that need to put stuff in it that upstream won't take.
Only hard forks matter in this case though. μClinux, vendor specific forks, or distro specific patches will never abandon upstream, because it has the momentum in regards to hardware support and testing.
Competitive forks will either consist of a sizeable portion of the former upstream developers and/or need reliable funds proportional to their problem domain (which is substantial for a general-purpose kernel). Even then an unambiguously technically superior fork with experienced developers may stagnate eventually (see lucid/xemas).

Debian+Canonical or Freedesktop+Redhat could maybe pull of a successful hard fork, but they won't want to.