this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2024
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Free and Open Source Software
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Do you know what topic brought you here?
"Hey guys, let's not use this free software, because of their views."
"Maybe we shouldn't use this other free software because of their views."
"Why are you guys worried about which free software you use based on their views?"
"We can all tell you aren't new, why are you complaining about our unofficial pastime?"
It's almost like the philosophy behind a software matters to its long-term stability. Like, as if devs might find reasons to, I don't know, reject PRs, ignore bugs, and trash their users when they come to them for help.
Weird that the content of someone's mind might affect their actions or be an indicator of what level of trust they should be extended!
I wasn't making any judgement on this, although if I were, I would point out that one of the benefits of open source is the ability to fork projects and move away from the elements you have a philosophical issue with, such as what the OpenOffice developers did when Oracle purchased Sun and started imposing their unplayable rules. What I was half-jokingly pointing out was some guy coming in deep into the conversation of highly opinionated people and acting like the conversation wasn't about their various opinions.
People talk about forking open source projects as if you just push a button and it happens on its own. I mean, okay, that's the first step, but maintaining an repo is a whole thing. Saying 'well just fork it then' is only a viable solution if you have the the means, the time, and the inclination. It isn't really an exclusive alternative to criticism, but another, much narrower, potential additional path.
It would certainly be good if people would fork all the useful projects made by devs who are interested in promoting social conservatism masquerading as 'apolitical actions' that attempt to reinforce the existing status quo of power. I'm not sure how likely it is, though. Certainly less so than bringing criticism to the table.