This is a hot take kind of article, but here it goes the rant.
This applies to me and you.
I’m writing this to remind myself somethings that I too often take for granted. I am going to preface this whole article by saying that everything I’m going to lay out / mention is something that I am personally guilty of. This is an open reminder and call out of things that I feel should change.
Our perspective is flawed
Nobody can dispute that the advances in technology have greatly improved our lives. Like anything, though, there is a trade off.
What is FOSS
FOSS is an acronym for “Free and Open Source Software”. It is generally about how software is licensed, meaning that the source code is available in the public for review, allowing a broader spectrum of people than the originators of the code to have input, look for bugs, redistribute the software, contribute, etc. It does not however mean that the software should be no cost to the end user.
This is where the word “freedom” comes into it. Overtime, as a society, we generally now think of FOSS as “free” software. This takes what was originally a noble / courageous idea and devalues it to the point that we now expect things to be free. It encourages corporate greed to take advantage of people who created something to solve a particular need, or as a hobby, expecting the creator to handle the burden of maintaining / patching bugs while they profit from it. Don’t get me wrong, these corporations will also contribute back, sometimes even donate money to the creators. I am not at all opposed to capitalism, nor saying that these corporations are in the wrong. At the end of the day, we created this problem.
Current state and how we got here
Software services / giants create applications that we come to rely on. They tempt / bait us with them being “free” or cheap, but that is because we are their target. They bloat the software with tracking and telemetry to capture data about us and sell us more products and services. Once again, if you’re pro-capitalism, it’s somewhat hard to blame them for this. We’re the gullible sheep who will blindly eat out their grain bins.
I can remember back in the day when there were music pirating services on the internet (napster is the one that comes to mind). As a giant music buff, I quickly jumped on board with services like these. Back in those days, I was young, didn’t make very much money, so it was hard to afford the latest and greatest tunes. I also remember back in this time frame a lawsuit from the metal giants Metallica (other’s words not mine ;)). At the time I remember thinking, like many others, that Metallica didn’t need the money, but then a comment from Lars Ulrich the band’s drummer struck a cord with me (pun intended). I’ll will paraphrase here, but it was something along the lines of “We’re not pursuing this for us, but for all of those (musicians) that come after us”. After this and reflection, I decided that I would not pirate music anymore.
Fast forward, now the majority do not purchases music / albums, we typically utilize streaming services (myself included), sure it may be more fair to the artists than pirating was, it can be argued that it’s easier today for independent artists to become known / discovered, I’m also in no way saying the old school music industry wasn’t a giant pile of dog poo, but I am saying that who is really winning(?), it’s the Spotify’s and Apple Music’s of the world, that’s who.
I’m also reminded of the great “MeasureQuick is now charging for services” that happened in the HVAC industry. I have personally never complained and have always supported this decision, because it is not sustainable to run a software company and not charge for services, generally. Sure, you may not like their pricing model, etc. Where I think they went wrong was not charging from the beginning, as it sets the wrong expectation that is presumably hard to recover from. There are those who took some of Jim’s words / opinions in a way different from how I do / did, which is fine, we’re all entitled to our opinions. What is often forgotten is that we’re all also entitled to change those opinions. Heck, I will probably be shouting a different story tomorrow, so be it!
Conclusion
What I would like to encourage people to do is to support software development. If an application is free, but has a donate button consider giving a donation. If an application is free and they don’t want to charge that’s fine too, however I would say to be suspicous, meaning is it free because you are the product?!?
I would also encourage you to be active in communities and organizations that foster community (HVAC School is a great example). Show appreciation and encouragement, but at the same time don’t be afraid to be critical or speak up.
At the end of the day, I hope to lift up my brothers and sisters, help to fight against the corporations who abuse the little guy’s and hopefully feel good about my decisions.
Over the last few weeks, I have been going through my software and services and looking for those donation buttons and giving back a little bit for the software that makes my life better. Help change the narrative and remember that it’s about Freedom not Free.
Links
Software used in this blog.
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