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FUSE for macOS is no longer open source

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Re: FUSE for macOS is no longer open source

#81

Post by bsder »

eps wrote: post #44
mike_d wrote: post #13

It is buried in the footnotes of the post, but the ultimate reason behind going closed source is that Google built their enterprise GDrive syncing client for mac off a fork of osxfuse. The original author of osxfuse feels entitled to some compensation for that and is doing his damnedest to make it happen.

I'm not sure if the dev feels entitled for _compensation_ per se, but G and other companies don't contribute back to the project in any form. Not $ and not in code. Now that is not a very good thing... though technically that's exactly what you get with permissive O/S licenses. It looks like the dev realized that and changed the license. It also doesn't look like he trusts this companies much, because otherwise he co…

> It also doesn't look like he trusts this companies much, because otherwise he could've just slapped the Commons Clause on his existing license and be done with it. So he closed the source instead.

If he doesn't have a copyright assignment, he probably can't easily change the license.

However, if the license is BSD, he can just not release source code. And, if he wasn't getting any contributions anyway then he gets no loss.

Re: FUSE for macOS is no longer open source

#83

Post by saagarjha »

Athas wrote: post #72
saagarjha wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This literally has zero to do with Apple aside from the fact that the project runs on macOS.

The FUSE maintainer (and this article) implies that kernel driver signing certificates are so difficult to get that forking is not realistic, even without considering the technical issues. I don't know if that is true, but if it is, then that is a certainly due to Apple policies. It's also interesting to contrast with Linux FUSE, which to my knowledge has never been associated with any maintainer drama.

I don’t think getting a signing certificate is all that difficult if you can demonstrate that you’d use it for something that Apple approves of.

Re: FUSE for macOS is no longer open source

#84

Post by f1refly »

pjmlp wrote: post #69
hizanberg wrote: post #23

Likely the best outcome for the project barring company sponsorship that pays him to continue working on it as OSS. He's been the sole maintainer on the project since 2012 [1] and has never been compensated for it, he says it will always be free to end users but wants companies that are financially benefiting from it to help sponsor continued development [2]: > I will never ask end users for financial support. FUSE w…

This will keep going on, until FOSS community accepts that beyond university projects, someone pumping up their CVs, having a company sponsorship, or being able to pimp it up with some kind of subscription/consulting, there is little to no money to be made and everyone has bills to pay.

No, this wouldn't have been a problem if the software had been gpl licensed, as the companies would've been forced to give back whatever they changed themselfes, potentially helping him out a lot

Re: FUSE for macOS is no longer open source

#86

Post by f1refly »

pjmlp wrote: post #70
Semaphor wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s a shame that the article is written in this tone The article seemed pretty neutral excluding the slightly shady stuff like not mentioning the license change properly, timely or even in expected locations > the dominant sentiment among open source folks The dominant sentiment of open source folks is that they want open source instead of proprietary software? That seems expected, it’s after all the whole point.…

The dominant sentiment of open source folks is that they don't want to pay for anything, even if it is open source.

That's a lie, lots of people donate voluntarily for their favorite free software every day. If you decide to be a leech that's fine too, but don't try to convince yourself others are that way as well.

Re: FUSE for macOS is no longer open source

#87

Post by joking »

deng wrote: post #79
atq2119 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I prefer the GPL and variants for personal projects that I don't intend to profit off monetarily. It's a conscious choice that I do want compensation, and I don't want to work for free"--but said compensation should be in code and not necessarily in money. It's why contributing to a BSD-licensed project as a hobby can feel a bit icky, and doing the same on a GPL-licensed project doesn't.

> That's why I prefer the GPL This is a pretty common misunderstanding. Google is using oxfuse internally and does not distribute it, so the GPL would not change anything here.

are you sure? it's not using oxfuse on the google drive clients that the users download and install on their own machines?

Re: FUSE for macOS is no longer open source

#88

Post by f1refly »

khc wrote: post #5

submitter and author of goofys here. As I see it there are 3 issues: 1. osxfuse is effectively closed source but the license is not changed 2. there's no open source fuse on latest version of OS X 3. most importantly, having only one maintainer for osxfuse is clearly not sustainable I don't really use OS X so mostly have an interest in this because some of my users are on OS X.

It was BSD-licensed the whole time, so it's not like you're entitled to an "open-source" application at all. Pay the guy, or use free software so this doesn't happen.

Re: FUSE for macOS is no longer open source

#89

Post by javajosh »

f1refly wrote: post #84
pjmlp wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will keep going on, until FOSS community accepts that beyond university projects, someone pumping up their CVs, having a company sponsorship, or being able to pimp it up with some kind of subscription/consulting, there is little to no money to be made and everyone has bills to pay.

No, this wouldn't have been a problem if the software had been gpl licensed, as the companies would've been forced to give back whatever they changed themselfes, potentially helping him out a lot

You cannot pay rent with 3rd party code contributions.

Re: FUSE for macOS is no longer open source

#90

Post by f1refly »

quotemstr wrote: post #11

When a FOSS project closes itself off this way, the proper response is to treat it as abandoned and continue development from the last-good version with source available. In particular, MacPorts should not be distributing the binary-only versions. Total disengagement.

It's not FOSS, it's just OSS. If it where free software, this whole drama wouldn't have happened.
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