Good article overall. The tendancy for FOSS to cater towards techies is definitely a problem. I’ll note that the government accountability aspect is based on whether the software is under corporate control, not whether it’s proprietary, but I can understand conflating the two since they do tend to coincide in practice.
It’s a tough issue, because for a ton of people FOSS is their hobby, and it’s not really fair to put the burden on the way people are enjoying their free time unless that hobby is actively harmful in some way - the world is no better off if these hobbyists were spending their free time playing games instead, and we wouldn’t ask them to cut games out of their lives. At the same time, the author’s point is definitely true that the freedoms libre licences grant are of little use to someone short on time, money, and expertise. I still think using free licenses makes the world a better place overall, but it’s completely understandable that a marginalized person wouldn’t find it worth their effort to prioritize using software under those licenses. Unless progress is made to make it worth their effort, the problems attached to proprietary software will continue to be problems.
My best guess at the way to approach this would be a government policy that offers funding for libre projects that hit a large enough userbase in exchange for some level of democratic control over a project that accepts said funding. Getting a law like that passed is probably as much of a pipe dream as overthrowing capitalism altogether, so I guess I might as well dream a little bigger. Back in the real world, the author’s suggestion to conclude the article is a good one, but I can’t imagine many people will take it up when most are struggling to live themselves.
I am cautiously hopeful that in the not too distant future there will be elected officials around the world that see FOSS as a public good and are willing to put money into funding people who are making things that befit lots of folks.
This would be amazing. We can dream in the meantime because I have a feeling this is a long way off. Currently, the most direct government support for FOSS is probably through public servants who use their employment to contribute to FOSS projects.
Good article overall. The tendancy for FOSS to cater towards techies is definitely a problem. I’ll note that the government accountability aspect is based on whether the software is under corporate control, not whether it’s proprietary, but I can understand conflating the two since they do tend to coincide in practice.
It’s a tough issue, because for a ton of people FOSS is their hobby, and it’s not really fair to put the burden on the way people are enjoying their free time unless that hobby is actively harmful in some way - the world is no better off if these hobbyists were spending their free time playing games instead, and we wouldn’t ask them to cut games out of their lives. At the same time, the author’s point is definitely true that the freedoms libre licences grant are of little use to someone short on time, money, and expertise. I still think using free licenses makes the world a better place overall, but it’s completely understandable that a marginalized person wouldn’t find it worth their effort to prioritize using software under those licenses. Unless progress is made to make it worth their effort, the problems attached to proprietary software will continue to be problems.
My best guess at the way to approach this would be a government policy that offers funding for libre projects that hit a large enough userbase in exchange for some level of democratic control over a project that accepts said funding. Getting a law like that passed is probably as much of a pipe dream as overthrowing capitalism altogether, so I guess I might as well dream a little bigger. Back in the real world, the author’s suggestion to conclude the article is a good one, but I can’t imagine many people will take it up when most are struggling to live themselves.
I am cautiously hopeful that in the not too distant future there will be elected officials around the world that see FOSS as a public good and are willing to put money into funding people who are making things that befit lots of folks.
This would be amazing. We can dream in the meantime because I have a feeling this is a long way off. Currently, the most direct government support for FOSS is probably through public servants who use their employment to contribute to FOSS projects.