GitHub on Twitter

“We're thrilled to announce that we've entered into an acquisition agreement with @Microsoft! https://t.co/4DezuXTJfV”

Twitter
@gabe the reactions to that tweet are something :D https://social.coop/media/KX6pdGPWvGm-pxlGw5w

@mayel Yeah, I'm really hoping this turns into some more decentralization-focused work on Git, as well as increased funding/support for the GitLab team to improve what they've got.

That said, the number of Microsoft apologists is astounding and incredibly disheartening.

@gabe

This.

Watching people who I thought were smart embracing Microsoft this morning is turning my gut.

@mayel

@jjg @gabe within the logic of capitalism, it makes total sense, so maybe a sign of people stuck in that mindset?

@mayel @gabe @jjg that is likely the case.

I have been working in tech for near 30 years, and literally the only people I encounter who *genuinely* believe in FOSS as a wider social force for good (not simply yet another aspect of profit making business) seem to be found on Mastodon (and a great number of them on social.coop instance, although thats to be expected)

@vfrmedia @jjg @mayel

The fact that FLOSS ethics is not a part of the wider political progressive movement is so tragic to me.

Social and economic progress rely on changing the underlying systems in place, systems which are already rapidly changing... thanks to technology. But if that technology isn't free, libre, and open, how could we possibly have true social+economic progress come out of it?

@gabe @mayel @jjg @vfrmedia I feel the other way around. FLOSS failed addressing the bigger picture, that is, the source of all the threats against Free Software has been capitalism.

I saw people fight against DRM, against vendor lock in, advocate for federation against silos, build tech against massive surveillance. And yet, very few times I've heard anyone mentioning capitalism as the common denominator here.

@alxcndr @gabe @mayel @jjg @vfrmedia I seem to remember rms mention it a few times, I think his reasoning for not mentioning it more is that he wanted to pull in people of all strides, even fans of the current system, or proprietary software, and then convince them otherwise.
@MatejLach
i'm currently reading a biography of rms (Free As In Freedom), and the impression i've got is that he mostly doesn't speak out more about his more general leftist views because he doesn't feel as comfortable or confident outside of his CS wheelhouse, and he figured that plenty of other people were fighting the other big evils (racism, capitalism, etc), so he should focus on this one smaller (but admittedly growing) evil that he has expertise in.
@juliebean Interesting... it must take some humble pie to do that when you have a platform like he does. I guess it's a nice counterexample to those asserting that he is quite ego driven, (I think this impression of him is just because he doesn't have much patience for interviews).
@MatejLach
agreed, too many people get a platform and go spouting off on stuff they're ignorant about, it is good seeing someone who knows when to leave it to others who are better suited for it. and yeah, he's definitely an intense, uncompromising sort of dude, but i definitely don't get the impression he's ego driven.