How did the ideology of libre/free software get so politicized?

I’ve noticed advocates for exclusively for libre software and actively discourage simple open source software for not going far enough, also want censorship of not allowing any proprietary software to be mentioned, and don’t allow any critiques of the software they use because it’s libre software so there are no faults or bad designs.

I thoroughly enjoy the code purity of what is labelled as libre software, for license I only like the ISC license for freedom. My attitude is if someone changes my code and doesn’t give back, it does not harm me or injury me in any way.

I also believe libre software can be used for the surveillance of other people, libre software does not be default mean privacy. How network software is configured in systems that other people don’t control, it doesn’t matter if it’s open source when people have no knowledge of other networks configuration.

On the principal of freedom, I do support the right to develop proprietary software. The fact that it exists does not harm anyone who chooses not to use proprietary software.

It seems the die hard libre software crowd, not open source people but the ones who want to live in an only GPLv3+ world can start to live in ther own world, their own bubble, and become disconnected losing perspective that which software other people use is not something that should affect your day in any way. Unless someone is both a network engineer and does infosec or something similiar, they’re not in a position to understand fully appreciate how network protocols matter more than a license and code availability.

  • Drew Got No Clue@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Not really answering your question, but FSF’s criteria here are straight up insane to me. Apparently, just mentioning “open source” is unethical, as well as ever letting anyone write “Linux” instead of “GNU/Linux”.

    • flatbield@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      One way to look at it: If you believe in 50% of what they do you should support them. If you believe in 90% you should be on the board. I think this was orginally said about the ACLU, but it equally applies to the FSF.

      Lot of people that hate the FSF are people and companies that tried to miss-appropriate FOSS code that was not theirs. These companies would sure try to sue you if you used their stuff, but are often upset and intractable when the FSF knocks on their door. So a lot of this is a double standard.