Ariadne Conill 🐰Jan 31
someone has a sense of humor here
Show threadAriadne Conill 🐰Jan 31
here in the main hall, they have on royalty-free techno music. the music is being played on a mac (non-free software), in the brave browser (free-ish software). in the dock there are several icons for microsoft and other non-free software.
Show threadAriadne Conill 🐰Jan 31
i am just pointing this out because, you know, it's FOSDEM, the free and open source developers' european meeting.
Show threadAriadne Conill 🐰Jan 31
last year the computer they used for this was running KDE 🙃
Show threadAriadne Conill 🐰Jan 31
they have swapped out for another machine running KDE (free software). it is showing a slideshow authored in Google Slides (non-free software), and the browser appeared to be Firefox (free software).
Show threadAriadne Conill 🐰Jan 31
RichiH has a strong message to kick this one off, definitely saying what everyone is feeling
Show threadIlya Zverev

@ariadne While strong, I do not consider this true. Like @eobet writes below, open source is community, and in non-democracies, communities and personal contact are most important.

On the contrary, closed source might be irrelevant in non-democracies.

Feb 1 at 7:27amWeb
Show threadAriadne Conill 🐰Feb 1
@zverik @eobet its a valid point, and indeed yesterday a friend pointed out that FOSS is growing quickly in China
Show threadMichael DexterFeb 1

@ariadne @zverik @eobet I mean… GPL-violating devices gonna violate, everywhere, and the Linux Foundation becomes indistinguishable from… say… Oracle?

Free Software contiues to completely win and lose at the same time.

It’s a multidimensional paradox and always has been. Just keep fighting the right fights.

Show threadAriadne Conill 🐰Feb 1
@dexter @zverik @eobet personally I think GPL enforcement is kind of a waste of time in most cases because you wind up chasing shell companies on shell companies which have already been dissolved after the product release 🙃
Show threadMichael DexterFeb 1
@ariadne @zverik @eobet It’s gotta have teeth, but this is about democracy and open source.
Show threadCindʎ Xiao 🍉Feb 1

@ariadne @zverik @eobet Exactly, and not just growing quickly - open source projects are co-opted and leveraged by the Chinese state, and Chinese companies complicit in genocide and crushing democracy are being welcomed into open-source projects with few consequences.

All of this is an opportunity to consider how open source can have more political teeth in supporting democracy, as right now it feels very separate, and inadequate