Comment by breezykoi

2 days ago

For a lot of people, FOSS is also very much the why. It’s not just a practical tool—it represents core principles like freedom, transparency, and collaboration. Those values are the reason many contribute in the first place.

7 comments

breezykoi

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juliangmp  2 days ago

Emphasis on the freedom, especially the freedom to use by anyone for any purpose.

If it took some people in the FOSS space this long that it also includes people, companies or purposes they disagree with, then I don't know what to tell them.

  • duskdozer  2 days ago

    That's just one interpretation of freedom.

    • breezykoi  2 days ago

      You are correct but in the context of free software, the FSF has been explicit about this ("The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose"). Publishing software under a FOSS license imply that you agree with this definition of freedom.

    • juliangmp  2 days ago

      Have you actually read one a Free/Open-Source license? Like for example the MIT[1] license:

        Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software [...] to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software [...]

      Or the FSF's definition[2] of Free Software

        The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).

      Or the OSI's definition[3] of open source.

        5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
  6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

      It's almost as if this concept is at the very core of FOSS.

      [1]: https://mit-license.org/ [2]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html#four-freedoms [3]: https://opensource.org/osd

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    • pixl97  2 days ago

      I mean, not really...

      That's like saying "I have the freedom to kill you".

      Saying that you can create something, then you reserve the 'freedom' to limit what everyone else does for it really doesn't fall under the word freedom at all.

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