Reading about FOSS philosophy, degoogling, becoming against corporations, and now a full-blown woke communist (like Linus Torvalds)

  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Linux and open source in general completely blow apart capitalist arguments that profit motive is necessary for innovation and technological advancement. Open source ecosystem primarily run by volunteers has produces some of the most interesting and innovative technologies that we’ve seen. The reality is that people make interesting things because they’re curious and they enjoy making stuff. Pretty much nobody makes anything interesting with profit being the primary motive.

    • FaeDrifter@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      capitalist arguments that profit motive is necessary for innovation and technological advancement

      I don’t know who is arguing this because it’s incredibly stupid. The greatest scientific minds of history, the mathematicians, the physicists, the inventors, were not capitalists, they’re people with passion for their work.

      If we move to a society that guarantees basic human needs and good education, we’re only going to have more scientists and engineers that progress technology even faster.

      • Thorned_Rose@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Capitalists argue this because it gives them the appearance of a moral high ground.

        Eshittification shows how untrue this - capitalism by its very nature will always devolve into worse and worse offerings because it’s reliant on squeezing out ever more profit.

        Capitalism will only ever puh out the bare minimum of technological advancement. And keeping people in indentured labour (aka employees) to the capitalist system so that they either have no time to come up with innovations themselves or they own the intellectual property of any indentured workers means that the overwhelming majority of innovation is monopolised by capitalism too. Which also contributes to the appearance of pushing advancement.

    • zabadoh@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I disagree somewhat.

      A lot of high tech development comes with a greed motive, e.g. IPO, or getting bought out by a large company seeking to enter the space, e.g. Google buying Android, or Facebook buying Instagram and Oculus.

      And conversely, a lot of open source software are copies of commercially successful products, albeit they only become widely adopted after the originals have entered the enshittified phase of their life.

      Is there a Lemmy without Reddit? Is there a Mastodon without Twitter? Is there LibreOffice without Microsoft Office and decades of commercial word processors and spreadsheets before that? Or OpenOffice becoming enshittified for that matter? Is there qBittorrent without uTorrent enshittified? Is there postgreSQL without IBM’s DB2?

      The exception that I can see is social media and networked services that require active network and server resources, like Facebook YouTube, or even Dropbox and Evernote.

      Okay, The WELL is still around and is arguably the granddaddy of all online services, and has avoided enshittification, but it isn’t really open source.

      • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        The idea that these things wouldn’t exist without commercial analogs is silly. You do realize that things like BBS boards and IRC existed long before commercial social media platforms right? In fact, we might’ve seen things like social media evolve in completely different directions if not for commercial platforms setting standards based on attracting clicks, and monetizing users.

        • robot_dog_with_gun [they/them]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          all the for profit things we use are worse because they are for profit.

          most of the time a site or service UI is made worse it’s because AB testing found the worse UI wastes user’s time and the metrics read that as engagement.

          • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Exactly, most of the bloat on commercial sites isn’t there for the benefit of the user, but rather in order to monetize them. It’s ads, trackers, metrics, and all the other garbage that you don’t actually want.

    • S_H_K@lemmy.fmhy.net
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      1 year ago

      The innovation argument is shaky at best many of the corporations innovations are brought or copied really. Is a story that became pretty common in the latest decades one guy come with a good idea some other mofo takes it and profits with it.

      • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        What’s more is that corporate driven research is necessarily biased towards whatever is profitable which is often at odds with what’s socially useful. For example, it’s more profitable to research drugs that help maintain disease and can be sold over a long time than drugs that cure it. Profit motive here ends up being completely at odds with what’s beneficial for people who get sick.

        And of course, any research that doesn’t have a clear path towards monetization isn’t going to be pursued. This is precisely why pretty much all fundamental research comes out of the public sector.

      • ConfusedLlama@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        That’s why it’s important to use hard copyleft licenses like the GPLv3 instead of merely open-source MIT or BSD licenses wherever possible when you publish software.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Indeed, the corps did a whole campaign lobbying for permissive licenses precisely so they could plunder open source work. Hard copyleft should be used for any serious project.

    • Auli@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      This is so wrong. It’s not volunteers writing this code it is people employed by companies who are paid to write this code. You do know people have to eat.

      • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Open source has existed long before companies started getting involved with it. Meanwhile, people having to eat has nothing to do with the argument being made which is that capitalism and profit motive are not required for creativity and technological progress.

    • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      This is true to some extent, but the best, most successful open source software is nowadays to a large extent made by for-profit businesses developing it for their own use but sharing it with the world.

      There is a strong correlation between “is this kind of software mainly used by businesses vs. individuals” and “does this kind of software tend to be open source”. Hardly anyone uses proprietary version control or web server software anymore. But (other extreme) in the area of video games, nearly all of them are still proprietary and probably will be for a long time. Software such as web browsers or office suites sits somewhere in between, both kinds exist there.

      • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Biggest and most popular projects are attractive to companies as well as individuals for the same reasons. However, the original point was that companies are not needed for open source to exist or for innovation to happen.

    • anarchotaoist@links.hackliberty.org
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      1 year ago

      Linux and open source in general completely blow apart capitalist arguments that profit motive

      Wrong! Linux and open source only shows that the profit motive is not the only motive. One should broaden the definition of profit to encompass value in all its forms. ie A person can gain value from the satisfaction of DIY as it can be self-empowering. One can gain emotional value from sharing. It also invokes the law of reciprocation - value exchange but without a $ sign. The Open source ecosystem is also heavily funded by business who relies on open source components. It is a capital investment.

      • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        The profit motive as used in capitalist sense strictly refers to financial gain. My whole point was that people do open source development for broader reasons than just base financial gain.

        And while companies do some funding, the ecosystem can exist without them perfectly fine.

      • yogo@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        If the profit motive is not the only motive that drives innovation, as you just agreed, then it isn’t necessary, logically. And not sure why you would then go on to expand the definition of profit into meaninglessness after agreeing there are other motives.

        • anarchotaoist@links.hackliberty.org
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          1 year ago

          What? How the f do you transition from ‘not only’ to ‘isn’t necessary’? That is not logic - that is mental gymnastics with a triple back flip! Profit is the PRIMARY motivator! People wish to move away from discomfort more than anything else. Currency is the best way of alleviating discomfort!

          • yogo@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago
            1. If X is a necessary motive for Y, then in the absence of X, Y cannot happen.
            2. Innovation can happen in the absence of a profit motive.
            3. Therefore, the profit motive is not necessary for innovation.
  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    Uh, I have been using Linux for 7 years and I’m pretty conservative. Don’t associate Linux with corrupt communist ideals

  • plutolink@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    This is the Linux content I was looking for. So relevant and insightful to Linux itself. Like, wow, this is so much better and so much less insufferable than Reddit’s userbase, amirite, guys? It’s so refreshing seeing the same ideology leaking into literally every community, the diversity is so nice to see, like, wow, yes.

  • whou@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I too just turned into a Marxist after finding out about Linux and software freedom in 2020 lol

    I think there might be more than a handful of us. Welcome, comrade.

    • AnanasMarko@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Disagree. If FOSS were an anarchism what would be the point of FOSS lincences of which some are very long legal documents? Also corporations would just take your code, say its theirs and tell you to go fuck yourself.

      • SailorMoss@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Foss licenses are copyleft, they bar individuals from enclosing the commons built by the collective for profit. Anarchism isn’t just letting people do whatever they want. Anarchism means against hierarchy. Having rules that prevent unjustified hierarchies from forming is entirely with in the bounds of anarchism. Including rules that prevent using copyright as a coercive hierarchy.

        • AnanasMarko@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Honest question: “Without any authority who gets to enforce the rules?”. Everyone, as they see fit it seems. What makes “your” hierarchy better than “my” hierarchy?

          • Sarcasmo220@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Everyone sort of enforces the rules as they see fit now. The difference is there is an expectation to not resist when someone is abusing their power because they are an authority figure. Under anarchism, it is your peers holding each other accountable, and your right to question actions against you is accepted.

        • Robaque@feddit.it
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          1 year ago

          All heirarchies are unjustified.

          I’d look at foss licenses more as tools of defence against (and within) the current system/context than “rules” that serve to enforce some kind of anti-capitalist “heirarchy”.

    • Zombie-Mantis@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My brother in Christ Comrade in the revolution, Communism is a stateless, moneyless, classless society. Whatever self-proclaimed “Statist Communists” thare are, are no-more Communist than the National “Socialists” who sent our kind to the death camps.

      • EchoCT@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        The end stage of the dialectic is that, yes. But that’s doesn’t just appear from nothing. Read state and Revolution or What is to be done.

  • stepanzak@iusearchlinux.fyi
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    1 year ago

    Yeah, I love the FOSS philosophy and I would be a communist if I didn’t know that in my country and in every other country where communism is/was, it became a dictatorship doing reallly horrible things. I simply don’t have the trust in people to believe communism is possible without violation of human rights. It’s sad.

    • Shatur@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      in every other country where communism is/was

      There is not a single country that has achieved communism.

      • stepanzak@iusearchlinux.fyi
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        1 year ago

        Sorry then, I should have written In every other country ruled by communists saying they are building communism, banning every other political party then the communist one, killing people in the name of communism. I see their unability to achieve communism even when they’ve had full control over country for decades as a proof of that it’s not really possible.

      • fishinthecalculator@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        No. They are not equal and neither same. If you understand Italian I suggest you to search for Prof. Barbero videos on the topic. They are quite better than anything I’ll be able to convey.

        Fascism:

        It’s an authoritarian dictatorship happened between 1914 and 1945 in Italy. The fascist regime and ideology was strictly based on Mussolini’s figure, people marched in straight lines down the streets, everyone wearing the same uniforms and Italy was a great imperialist nation (lol jk it wasn’t but they quite believed it). Fascism and the fascist party stopped existing after partisans overthrew the regime. Fascism is a 20 years long dictatorship. After that there were some regimes around the world that were inspired by Mussolini such as the current ruling party Italy Fratelli d’Italia, Marine le Pen’s party in France, those shitty AFD in Germany, orban’s Regime, franco in Spain etc etc. They are called neofascists, because Fascism was a 20 years long regime happened in Italy between 1914 and 1945.

        Communism:

        Communism is a model of governace that’s never been achieved in human history, as someone above said it’s about classless, stateless, governance models. It’s been around for like 200 years (the Communist Party Manifesto is from 1848), and in every country of the world there is/ has been a Communist Party and as we know they were always persecuted for being communist, stopped from going to the government and stopped from bulding a classless society when they managed to get to govern. Just see what the USA did in the last 50/60 years in every country that risked a communist government: Chile and latin America in general, Italy and so on an so forth.

        Fascism =/= communism, and if you say the contrary you just don’t know how they work.

  • dayna@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    I think there is something fundamental about the pull of investigating, understanding, and reading that leads to so much crossover between the two.

  • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Just wait for the next stage as a libertarian socialist, without a leading communist party, because we can take care of us ourselves - it’s usually called anarchy (which doesn’t mean no social norms, just self-organisation without leadership)