Re: [PLUG] Red Hat cutting back RHEL source availability

[Steve Litt via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

Rich Freeman via plug said on Thu, 22 Jun 2023 14:02:36 -0400

>You want the companies
>that are investing in FOSS to have an advantage over the ones that
>just take without giving as much back.  RHEL isn't really my thing,
>but we all benefit from it (IMO).

I'm assuming the "you" in the preceding paragraph means "almost
everyone", because personally, I wish companies had never invested in
Linux. I'd rather jump through the hoops of mknod instead of udev. I'd
rather be stuck with OSS than have corporate money determining the
direction of Linux. Personally, to this day, I love my OpenBox window
manager, which isn't corporate. Even that awful fvwm would have been
better, in my personal opinion, than having the direction of Linux
determined by megacorps.

An analogy: In 2010 the Supreme Court overturned the McCain-Feingold
campaign finance law, so with a few minor exceptions, corporations and
super-pacs could spend unlimited funds on elections. The result: I
think if you ask anyone on any conceivable "side of the aisle", they'll
tell you politics is worse now than it was before 2010. Well, except for
the corporations and the super-pacs. Admittedly, part of the analogy
breaks down due to the fact that campaign contributions have no
constructive purpose, whereas a corporation's contribution in dollars
or personnel can conceivably produce good software. But the fact
remains that unlimited contributions give to the big contributors an
outsized influence on the direction of FOSS.

As I said, the preceding is my *personal* belief, and plenty of people
disagree. The remaining question is how many people who really use
Linux, and aren't just trying to get a zero dollar Windows, agree with
me.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
Autumn 2022 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore/thrive.htm
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