Comment by j-pb
5 years ago
In open source you give and take. The actix author almost certainly (unless they deploy their own kernel) has profited immensely from other peoples work. This is because as a community we have realized that we don't sell libraries, we sell stuff build with them, so we all win when we share.
It is your choice to use open source software without open sourcing your own work or without contributing.
But by engaging in open source you engage in a social contract, you become part of a community whose goal it is to foster collaboration and help one another, other people start to rely on you, just as you rely on their libraries, compilers, and kernels.
The author choose to break that social contract out of spite. He created a scenario where people choose to rely on him, when they could have relied on other works, and then screwed them over majorly.
> The actix author almost certainly (unless they deploy their own kernel)
... or use Windows / MacOS / Solaris / any other commercial OS he paid for...
> by engaging in open source you engage in a social contract
You heck. You simply allow other people to use your work as they see fit. That's it. The only contract is the license, and the license is very explicit in denying the existence of any other tie, explicit or implicit.
When you hold the door open for somebody you don't sign shit, yet it's implicit that you don't swing the door in their face.
But you don't hold a door: you are dropping a package on the street and letting people pick it up. Anyone can reuse the cardboard, paint it red, stack it up with other packages, or hang it on their livingroom walls... but there is no guarantee that the package won't contain a bomb, that the cardboard was made by eco-friendly methods, or that it will last one second after getting dropped on the streets.
9 replies →
"The actix author almost certainly (unless they deploy their own kernel) has profited immensely from other peoples work."
Prove it.
"But by engaging in open source you engage in a social contract" https://gist.github.com/richhickey/1563cddea1002958f96e7ba95...
>> Prove it.
Actix was written in rust. Rust is OS. qed.
Quote from Rich's gist.
>> I'm sure you know better about the one true way to write software. But kindly don't burn the community down on your way out, with self-serving proclamations.
The actix author could just have walked away, no harm done, push one button "Archive", go outside and enjoy the sun.
Instead they choose to throw a tantrum, write a pamphlet and nuke everything.
Entitlement goes both ways.