09.21
So the Internet’s version of the Jehovah’s Witnesses were (allegedly) out in force again as free software day came and went again. I certainly didn’t (luckily) see anyone that felt the need to press some crappy GNU/Linux distro into my hand while blathering about software ‘ethics’. Maybe there are some advantages to living in a chavvy hell-hole of a town sometimes.
Anyway that’s not really the point. I used to be a nearly full-blown freetard a long time ago. I had the whole ‘hate the man’ thing down (Microsoft) and bought into the whole ‘by developers, for developers, lets cut out the corporate middle man’ movement. This was before I had even really used Linux – but the concept seemed sound. And how can a developer not fall for that idea – software utopia, plus never having to deal with anti-user crap like artificial limits and activation again! But then I actually used it for an extended duration and moved into my ‘the idea is sound, but it just needs more work’ phase. I believed with the concerted effort of like-minded people and by including designers, UI experts and artists it was only a matter of time. The third phase was that it was a shame that a great idea was being ruined by a defensive community of non-developer, non-contributing idiots intent on scaring away anyone who didn’t believe it was already perfect. At least I was partially right that time.
And finally, I am where I am now: It’s a bad idea to the point of being dangerous and it just won’t work anyhow.
Here’s the thing. Nobody owns GPL’d code. The code is free. You are not. For example you, as a user, have more freedoms when it comes to BSD licensed code – effectively you can do what you want with it, provided you provide credit. GPL’d code on the other hand has a slew of limitations on what you can and cannot do and attaches a larger burden on you in terms of distribution of changes and source. The code is more ‘free’ under the GPL. By GPL’ing code you effectively say ‘nobody owns this, it belongs to itself’. I can sell BSD code and deny you your ‘fundamental right’ to freely distribute it further. I can also grant you the same right as the GPL. The GPL simply ensures you cannot stop anyone from modifying and distributing.
The problem with the above is that it entirely negates ownership. You cannot ‘own’ free software. It doesn’t matter if you wrote it – it’s not yours. As soon as you release software under the GPL you have no more right to it than any of the other 6 billion people on the planet. It’s why FOSS advocates call closed source (distastefully) ‘slavery’, as closed source software is owned and controlled by someone.
The ramifications of this are obvious – you can’t make money selling free software. You can sell it, but so can everyone. If you’ll need to sell 10,000 copies at £100 each to reclaim your investment and the kid in the local computer store will sell them for £5 to anyone that wants one then you’re simply never going to break even. The whole ‘you can sell free software’ excuse is intellectually dishonest as you have to compete with people with no sunk or running costs. The best you can do is put up an online tip-jar and rely on effectively begging – and I’ve yet to hear of that working well.
Effectively, what the GPL and the Free Software movement says, is that developers do not deserve to be compensated for their effort. Unless they can manage to sell the first copy for £1,000,000 then there is no way to ever get paid for the time spent. It simply can’t be done. If you want to man a phone line, do email support, work as a call out technician, then you can (according to ‘software freedom’) demand a fair hourly wage, but if you are a developer you can’t. It’s ‘immoral’. Simply on the basis that you cannot own code, thus can’t charge money for it.
The argument often made about the above is that businesses still need programmers. Which is true. But this is where the whole thing unravels fully. I am a programmer – say I have an idea for a great new CMS tool*. I now have two options:
- Quit my job, rely on my family to put up with me for a few months while I spend 12hrs+ a day working on it.
- Take my idea to a large company such as IBM, Oracle, Microsoft or someone else like that.
As above, according to the ‘software freedom’ camp if I picked option 1. as soon as I released it it would be mine no more. The second I tried to charge money for it it would just be forked and given away. Instead of relying on the future income I could have gained from selling it at launch to pay back the debts I would have no doubt incurred, and to fund new development, I would be forced to ‘get a job’. Any development work would have to be done in evenings and weekends – and I would effectively be forced to decide between programming what I want, or my marriage. Plus the software would progress more slowly as I would not have much time to devote to it.
Now with option 2. there is pretty much zero chance of getting taken up on my idea. You don’t tell a business that you want to hire you what you are going to work on. Unless you are really, really famous. Chances are unless your surname is something like ‘Carmack’ you’re going to be writing the mundane stuff that they want you to do – not your own exciting ideas.
There are companies that are based around and heavily involved in free software. Names include companies such as Red Hat, Mozilla, IBM, Canonical, Google, Novell etc and the one thing about these companies is that they are not in the software sales business. Red Hat is in providing support and SLA’s for businesses and servers. IBM is similar to Red Hat – they sell ‘solutions’. Mozilla makes money from advertising for Google, Canonical is a billionaire’s plaything, Google sells advertising and Novell is just a slightly more pragmatic Red Hat. You’ll never see a company such as Adobe adopt a FOSS business model as they are in the business of selling software. I don’t imagine anyone can make the argument that Adobe can go FOSS and remain profitable with a straight face.
It’s the following realisation that made me realise what a disaster FOSS really is. Free Software only benefits large companies and the rich. It is almost impossible to be a developer and not work for ‘the man’ under the GPL. Sure there are exceptions to every rule but the simple fact is you can’t be a developer unless you can get an alternate revenue stream. Support is good, but not a lot of apps will require support and you don’t spend months programming to be forced to make money manning a phone line. There are also the dual license options, but this is effectively shareware, and you are still making money selling closed source software.
If adhering to the GPL was a legal requirement then it’s not like software would all suddenly be free and open. What would actually happen is that people would simply stop making software. All the games available on Steam would not suddenly be free – they simply wouldn’t have been made in the first place. I pay money for SmartFTP because it is the best FTP program I have ever used. By paying money I help fund further development. I am happy with this.
It’s not even like the mass piracy and commoditization of music, as it’s not like developers can make money selling tickets at £50 a go to live shows. The software itself is all you’ve got.
Now I simply don’t see how anyone who thinks pragmatically about a future in which the GPL is accepted as the way to distribute software can possibly support it as in reality the people it hurts the most are the very people that support it – individual developers.
* True story, I do. I am working on it and plan to launch it in a few months.
Some Further Thoughts and Ugly Truths:
The most overlooked point with regards to software development is that it is generally the result of a few people sinking a large amount of time into it, not as a result of a lot of people doing a small bit. You simply can’t throw developers at a project and expect it to flourish – it just doesn’t work. If you want something well written and cohesive it’ll take a small, dedicated, team – not a large bunch of semi-skilled volunteers – not something that really happens in FOSS unless you are being funded by a rich 3rd party.
Capitalism, in a nutshell, is providing people what they want. If you don’t provide it you don’t succeed. If enough people don’t want it the provider can either improve and adapt, or die. In the FOSS world you take what you’re given and have no right to complain. Gimp is near useless and doesn’t even match the decade old Photoshop 5.0 yet people not using it will not spur on development. There is simply no motivation to cater for a wide audience – if Gimp was a commercial product the company would have been bankrupt years ago but catering for your users needs is simply not important in the world of free software. Free software is about developers scratching their own itch, not finding out what itch other people want scratched.
The bulk of FOSS development work is done by one of these people:
- Students, getting paid to learn.
- Unemployed, getting paid by the state.
- The Rich, resting on their laurels.
- Large companies, adding value to their other services.
Free software is categorically not made by these people:
- Software companies.
If it is name one.
Software development is hard. It’s incredibly time consuming. If most people truly appreciated the difficulty and time required to create a truly great piece of software I doubt they would have bothered. It requires people with a true passion for development to make truly great software, and I personally find the fact that such people would be relegated to only doing what they love in their spare time, rather than as an actual job, disgusting.
And finally it is the software that is free, not you. All this talk of ‘freedoms’ and ‘rights’ is utter crap – it’s not your freedom or your rights so the whole idea that commercial software is taking them is simply untrue. If a developer wants to release something under a Libre license that is fine – but it should never be considered ‘ethical’ or expected for this to be the case and if you really want to make a case for your own ‘freedoms’ then the BSD license is far more appropriate candidate.
I think the divide you draw between it must be open source and proprietary development is a false dichotomy. Consider the fact that at this point, individual OS’s are (more or less) a commodity. I understand that there are a lot of whizbang features that you can add to operating systems, but at a fundamental level, there isn’t that much left to “solve” in the operating system realm for pc/consumer devices. I think it is in these areas that free software truly shines.
On the other hand, specialized software is best served by a proprietary development model. However, if you have a swanky idea, that doesn’t mean you have to release it under the GPL and give away your code for free. There are a number of successful proprietary applications for linux. The ones that jump to my head are Mathematica and Matlab. Note that Matlab has a Linux port available even though there is a competing open source suite called Octave. You can still make money in the space as long as you are willing to deal with the lunatic fringe that claim they are in it for the idealogy but really just want a bunch of free software. It is a similar effect you see in music piracy. All those people that hate “The Man” but aren’t willing to forgo their “hits.”
You not underrstand problem of proprietery software. Proprieter software always crapy code write. Thijnk of ntfs data lose and nt non rt problems that impractical make it in embeded sector.
So, here is what I wonder. The great FOSS champion Firefox comes with a spell checker built in. If you are going to attempt to rebutt someone, you could attempt to not make a spelling mistake every 3rd word.
Great post as usual
@LinuxLover,
I think you need some proprietary grammar and syntax lessons!
“You not underrstand problem of proprietery software. Proprieter software always crapy code write. Thijnk of ntfs data lose and nt non rt problems that impractical make it in embeded sector.”
Really? That’s odd! Linux has crashed on me more times than either OS X or Windows has! Oh, and speaking of filesystems, the superior ZFS can’t be used in linux due to licensing. Isn’t that great?
Linux/GNU and GNU/OS X have great market share.
Consider the fact that at this point, individual OS’s are (more or less) a commodity.
That’s a load of shit. If operating systems were a commodity then every computer would be sold with Linux because it is free.
Linux has lousy mainstream software support and OSX requires that you buy an overpriced white computer to run it. Those aren’t commodity products. Coffee is a commodity product. It is bought and sold on the stock market.
“That’s a load of shit. If operating systems were a commodity then every computer would be sold with Linux because it is free.”
That’s like saying there’s no reason to buy Porsche because a Civic is all you would ever need. You see the same phenomenon in coffee. Why else would people go to Starbucks and get those ridiculously overpriced designer coffees. Linux is free and can run on any processor architecture out there today.
Current design challenges are higher up the stack, exactly as you mentioned with the problem of the software catalog.
You think NTFS not crash? NTFS is a joke in data recovery field. Linux have secure and realtime ext4 fs that not corupt system files every five mintues.
“It’s not even like the mass piracy and commoditization of music, as it’s not like developers can make money selling tickets at £50 a go to live shows.”
Ha, ask Stallman, teh superstar programmer.
On the topic of FOSS benefiting only the rich, I’ll draw the crowd’s attention to Linux_Victim’s excellent research on the subject:
(multiple posts from same thread)
http://linsux.org/index.php/topic,2098.msg25095.html#msg25095
http://linsux.org/index.php/topic,2098.msg25103.html#msg25103
http://linsux.org/index.php/topic,2098.msg25155.html#msg25155
(multiple posts from same thread)
http://linsux.org/index.php/topic,2122.msg25439.html#msg25439
http://linsux.org/index.php/topic,2122.msg25447.html#msg25447
Operating systems being a commodity would indicate no forthcoming improvements, which we know to be false whether talking about Windows, Mac OS, or even Linux. Especially in the realm of electronics it is folly to suggest that everything is “done”.
I tried pointing to some Linux_Victim posts to reinforce the notion that FOSS benefits only the rich, but it appears WordPress ate the post. Any way to get this info through?
Tux Sux – The spam catcher got it, but I managed to rescue it from it’s clutches so it’s now been posted. I have a pathological hatred for captcha’s which means sometimes these things happen
Thanks, Kerberos. I figured I got flagged as a link spammer but didn’t know whether WordPress dumped the message or just jailed it. I wouldn’t hate captchas so much if they behaved like a session. I don’t know why I need to enter one upon every message submission.
“GNU/OS X”
If you got any stupider, your head would implode.
To be fair, Richard Chapman, a SJVN regular, or someone impersonating him, broached the topic of “GNU/OS X” and “Linux/GNU” in this thread. His posts seem to have been deleted.
@LinuxLover
“You think NTFS not crash?”
Nope. NTFS can get corrupted just like _any_ other filesystem. It can get fragmented, like _any_ other file system. However, it has decent tools to fix itself if corrupted or fragmented. If the Linux filesystems are so fucking perfect, why does FSCK even exist??
“NTFS is a joke in data recovery field.”
Sources?? Any at all that are outside your head? BTW, do EXT2 and EXT3 get bigger laughs? They should.
“Linux have secure and realtime ext4 fs that not corupt system files every five mintues.”
Secure? Look up “ACL” in regard to filesystems. NTFS’s Access Control List system was designed in from start, and it blows Linux’s hacked on bodge job out of the water.
Realtime? Not corruptible? Easily refutable. Google “EXT4″. First result, scroll down and find;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext4#Delayed_allocation_and_potential_data_loss
Get a clue.
“To be fair, Richard Chapman, a SJVN regular, or someone impersonating him, broached the topic of “GNU/OS X” and “Linux/GNU” in this thread. His posts seem to have been deleted.”
Are you sure? I’ve yet to delete anything from the comments here (except on request). I’ll check the spam catcher but it shouldn’t have been displayed. There’s nothing I’d welcome more than sensible debate.
EXT4 not crash,. NTFS bubbly boo poo ppoo, fire start, ntfs fails, ext4 resistant to fire and atomic bombs. Butterfly kisses, sweet dreams are made of this, too bad ntfs not same.
Ah shit. The comments were at LHB. When I saw Adam King post “Linux/GNU” and “GNU/OS X” I must have thought I saw them here.
+1 for the Eurythmics reference. (Unless you’re a complete knob-end and think Marilyn Manson wrote it.) Minus several billion for the rest of that brainfart.
oiahiom, problem is NT non-RTOS spinlocks cause stuttering audio IRQ conflict that leeds to sys32 dir empty on S3 hypernate. simple fact NTFS corruption caused by angle grinder to spinning drive platters which EXT4 not vulnrable two. EXT4 use real time molecular RTOS magnatic air signature to recover data into ground platter. I work in data recovery and see this all the time. Open your eyes. NTFS cant not survives salt water and arc welder.
Someone, please post Tux Sux’s links at Thomas B’s “blog”. Maybe there’s still time to wake him up!
You know, Oiahiom is right. NTFS is bugged. After all these years Microsoft still hasn’t fixed the bug where NTFS may corrupt the entire file-system after the hard drive sustained physical damage. You’d think that would be priority number one for Microsoft.
Adam Queef makes another lame ass post where he thinks he is refuting you, but just makes himself look even more retarded. He also calls you “Kerabos” for some reason. Apparently they haven’t gotten to spelling class yet in his 7th grade English class.
Looks like Queefer changed the spelling while silently deleting my post mocking him for calling you by the wrong handle. Though amusingly enough the URL still has the incorrect “Kerabos” spelling in it.
Interesting to note that the FreeBSD guys “got” the GPL:
“A less publicized and unintended use of the GPL is that it is very favorable to large companies that want to undercut software companies. In other words, the GPL is well suited for use as a marketing weapon, potentially reducing overall economic benefit and contributing to monopolistic behavior.”
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/bsdl-gpl/gpl-advantages.html
The most fascinating aspect of the whole GNU philosophy is that the GNU manifesto states outright and even multiple times that it will harm the people it supposedly caters too (the programmers) with all its “programmers should be low wage slaves” mantra.
This is absolutely unique. Every idea/movement/organization wants to lure you in with the promise that it will get BETTER FOR YOU if you join the cause, not the opposite. Scientology promises that its adherents will be able to to manipulate the pysical realm, communist leaders promised that its adherends will get a better life than before the revolution.
But with GNU it’s totally different: The promise is that programmers will get treated worse than before!
“After all these years Microsoft still hasn’t fixed the bug where NTFS may corrupt the entire file-system after the hard drive sustained physical damage”
After all these years, Linus still hasn’t fixed the bug where Linux crashes if I roll over my computer with a tank. This really should be a priority!
Get a fucking clue. If physical damage screws up the file allocation tables, no amount of fancy tricks short of a bit-by-bit forensic recovery wil get your data back.
There’s something for everyone to bring to this discussion, but I think you should just bring silence.
Ted, the post you responded to was a sarcastic response to oiahim’s whining about how NTFS crashes all the time.
Ah, go easy on him. Half the fun of reading posts at LHB, Jerkface Playhouse, and Piestar is laughing at people failing to grasp sarcasm.
My sarcasm detector must need re-calibrating. :s
I think I’ve just seen too many _genuine_ posts like that where a member of the FOSS brigade makes up any old shit to bash Microsoft, then another one wades in and agrees with it.
Kerberos.. New post soon, pleeease?
I believe the original argument that Oiahiom was making was that NTFS had a bug where data would get corrupted if the HDD lost power in the middle of a write. He ranted about it for several days not realizing that it’d be physically impossible for the drive to write data without power. From there commentors at LHB mocked him by stating the NTFS had a bug where it would corrupt data if the drive was smashed, microwaved, deguassed, bombed, et cetera.
There is another long running mockery of Oiahiom which originated by his insistence in bringing up RTOS computing where it was irrelevant and not understanding the difference between an RTOS and RT process priority. Since then people would mock him by referencing RTOS at random during an argument.
There is a difference between losing data and corrupting data. Data loss in the face of power loss is always acceptable. Data corruption is not, and that is why you get all sorts of fun things like commit protocols for writting. I can’t remember what he was actually ranting about though.
Where has Thomas B been these days? He must be writing those long PHP codes.
He’s probably trying to install his GNU/dik in some girl’s pussy. Unfortunately the instructions for getting it hard are too difficult for him, plus it’s only an inch long anyway.
No, I’ve been away from my computer, in real life, unlike you guys who just sit around your computers all day and bash Linux and FOSS.
Aah.. What a delight for ya’ Thomas!
Actually, we’ve also been busy doing something else than sitting around here.
- Me, for one, had a great weekend! – and i even got to see a dear lady-friend of mine.
I still think he was trying and failing to install himself in some girl. She probably slapped him before he got to first base.
Even if he could actually get a girl quasi-interested, he’d mess it up by trying to tell her about “Open Source”, “Linux” and “Richard $tallman”.
Thomas B sucks African gorilla cock.
Now don’t be too hard on little Tommy. We don’t want him growing up to be a complete social failure and wanker like Adam Queef. He’s still got a shot at a normal life, if he can shake the early-stage freetard infection he picked up.
A girlfriend is a wonderful idea. Love will help him to see what a shallow empty misogynistic twat RM$ is. Compassion for the man will turn to pity, Linux will become just another piece of software to play with, and he will cease to be someone else’s tool in someone else’s jihad against The Man.
Be your own man, Thomas B! Fight your own fight! I believe in you.
Thomas B is a lost cause. He is forever doomed to spend his life in his mother’s basement, trapped at the emotional age of 14. He will wonder why nobody likes him, but will not understand the extent to which he has brought it upon himself. He will search for comfort in the arms of freetarded men he meets on ubuntuforums, but will only find flaming anal chainsaw rape.
It’s not rape if you’re willing.
Flaming anal chainsaw love doesn’t sound any more appealing, all the same.
No, if there is one thing that all youth are capable of, it’s rapid change of attitude and belief. Thomas B is not yet beyond hope. Most of us had a bit of the freetard about us at one point, and overcame it. For me it was when I showed a non technical user the spinning cube, and it utterly failed to impress them.
I then knew that I was chasing the false idol of digital fluff and nonsense at the expense of function and usability.
And I was much older and far more set in my ways than Thomas B can possibly be. He can over come!
Okay seriously guys this has to stop. All you guys ever do is flame me and accuse me of being an fsf fanbois when I criticize linux and richard stallman. I use linux because it makes me feel good okay? It gets me hard and I jizz in my pants every time I see a kernel panic.
Hmm.. Seriously though guys. It’s getting a little old ya’ know.. All that flaming on Thomas.
Over at /. they have their “chair throwing” jokes, and apparently we have our “thomas” jokes..
Seriously, it’s getting old and boring.
I’m much more fond of the Oiaohm memes myself.
You guys understanding not how linux move forwarding. Gimp now have features of photoshop 4 but you keep saying gimp like photoshop 2.5. Yet you keep ignore that ms paint not have new features in longtime. You say x always crash but x becoming more stability all needed is for someone to convince developers to focus on fixing bugs with nice salty ohio ham.
Aah.. But Oiaohm is also quite acceptable.
After all, he didn’t make that much sense first place. 
(… especially his talk about how EXT didn’t lose data after power loss or whatever he was all about!) And the later claims someone anonymous made over at LH ’bout Oaiohm being some sort of guru (though it couldn’t be supported in any way, whatsoever. 
) – was probably him, posting as an anon. 
Peter Dolting responsible for enlightening many x developers. Peter dolting singled handingly create usability standards for linux. Peter Doltingly convince x developers there way is not always easiest user way.
Enjoy: http://mpscripts.omegasubs.com/blog/the-community/
“There are also the dual license options, but this is effectively shareware, and you are still making money selling closed source software.”
I think the combination of people bitching about Qt’s dual-licensing (make that tri-licensing now) and KDE’s stubbornness to not fully support Windows (as in, the most-used OS on the planet, the *platform* that could actually bring their software to USERS) with KDE 4.x. Seriously, no system tray in Plasma for Windows? But I digress.
They’ll never support big business, it’ll always be big business supporting them. Always. And the fact they’re engaging in FOSS won’t be out-front with the businesses (except when it’s good PR) ala Dell. It simply doesn’t work.
Nice article
Oops, I missed the end of my sentence (twice! I even proof-read it before submitting! What a day…)
The combination of… …is what did me in hope-wise. It ushered me into the “final stage of freetard” if you will- denial I ever was involved with that crap.
Sorry for any confusion.
http://linuxevangelism.blogspot.com/2009/10/cool-stuff.html?showComment=1255199104551#c2597599912556878621
Click here. The official blog of Thomas B, Teh 1337 Blog. You can see my latest posts on how the Linux community sucks.
Thomas B is a stupid little freetard doomed to have is ass raped with a flaming chainsaw. Pretending he’s one of us won’t help.
You’re an asshole.
All it took was a ton of “stop using linux” and “Thomas B sucks cock” posts to make Thomas B run away like the three year old freetard he is.
THOMAS B SUCKS AFRICAN GORILLA COCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HEY! YOU! BLOG-OWNER!
When are we getting some updates from you?? Really.. I just wanna know wether i should keep checking back, or if you have no intentions of writing a post. ever.
So…. Free Software Day came and went… again. I use some free software. And some of it is quite good. My favourite source editor is FOSS (Notepad++). My favourite desktop utility (DexPot) is FOSS. I use Audacity.
By and large, though, I do not use a LOT of free software because, by and large, for the most part… Free software is crap. Now if you WANT to believe that it is not crap, then there’s little that can be done.
But the number one reason whay I do not use it as a mainstay is simply this – best expressed on a website I saw recently called “Windows 7 Sins”. Quote:
“To use free software is to make a political and ethical choice…”
And that… right there… is why I do not use it. For the majority of FOSSils I know, their main intent in using it is simply to “stick it” to Microsoft. To most of them, it’s vive le revolucion and all that. Fight the power!
I’m not interested.
Give me good software that really is useful and I will use it. But I’m not gonna join the revolution “simply because…..”
I think doing so is dangerous anyway, to the very core of their goals and designs. Their intent is to empower users? Let’s face it: Microsoft has the market on desktop operating systems. And a fair claim to the developer market too. Seeking damage upon MS in the name of “freedom!” will have the effect of backfiring. If we do enough damage to MS, what happens to their desktop OS market? If it shrinks, what will step in and offer that level of utility? Ubuntu? Fedora? I don’t think so.
Lets face if – all the Unix derived OSs are still just that: UNIX DERIVED. The learning curve is significantly higher and you still (no matter how pretty Ubuntu is), you still will get almost nowhere until you have mastered quite a few cryptic command lines. In fact, all these FOSS OSs are virtually worthless unless you DO in fact do most of your work on the command line. Ubuntu is great so long as you want to do absolutely NOTHING that it doesn’t do right out of the digital box.
@Kirby L “FOSS OSs are virtually worthless unless you DO in fact do most of your work on the command line” — Exactly !!! That’s the entire point that J. Random Linuxfan fails to get parsed by the overwanked set of nerve cells within their cranium. Unix/Linux was, is and always will be an excellent system for the kind of work you do on the command line. For all else, it sucks by design. The continuous bleating about how Linux rocks the desktop only gives it a very bad name.