Mastodawn

People are slowly realizing that Android only weaponized open source licenses but was always meant to be a captive platform, like people are slowly realizing that VS Code has open source code but is a captive platform.

Open source licences are not enough. They’re regularly weaponized as a tech enthusiast trap.

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Omar Eldahan

Oct 29

@thibaultamartin I don't think that this is a particularly good take. Open source fundamentally means anyone can fork the source code and change it for any reason. Instead of VS Code, there's VS Codium. Instead of Android, there's a million alternatives BECAUSE it's open source.

I hate the direction that Google is taking to close down Android, but this has nothing to do with the license. In fact, it's the opposite.

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Mark

@Fireforger @thibaultamartin I'm increasingly observing that those who put effort into maintenance can control the project. Projects didn't seem to historically need so much maintenance, so it was relatively easy to just fork, and avoid lock in. Increasingly you need a lot more process and governance beyond the code, so the barrier to a successful fork is higher. If the original project has corporate backing it's more likely to be maintained and usable.