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The Free Software Foundation is dying

drewdevault.com

21–30 of 247 posts

Re: The Free Software Foundation is dying

#21

Are they even coming out with any new software? I remember GNU being big in the 1990s and I know a new version of gawk came out recently, but it seems the center of gravity of “free software” (as in beer) has moved in the direction of the Apache foundation (so many data-related projects it is a “big data” problem to keep track of them all), Github, etc.

GNU Guix (package manager and OS distro) is a pretty big project, that's fairly recent.

Re: The Free Software Foundation is dying

#22

How is the FSF failing? There seems to be far more freedom respecting choices nowadays than in the past and we're now entering the dawn of "free" cpus with RISC-V. I'd also consider that Linux is more widely used than at any time in the past as well. What am I missing?

They are being eclipsed in terms of contributions by the Linux Foundation, AI groups, robotics groups, you name it. There was a lot of squandered potential there.

Stallman has spent the majority of the time arguing pedantically about things he has no control over - for instance he would yell at you for saying "Linux" instead of "GNU-Linux". He outlived the utility of being the FSF leader about 30 years ago and should have passed on the baton then.

Re: The Free Software Foundation is dying

#23

The Free software foundation needs its Martin Luther and Reformation. Stallman has quite literally become the pope of the Free software foundation and we need to remember that like with the Protestant Reformation, the individual has their own, unmediated relationship with free software. There are other apt analogies between the Protestant Reformation and the Free software foundation but I will leave discovering that…

We’re already there. For example, look at the spectrum of licenses free software can fall under.

Re: The Free Software Foundation is dying

#24
post #4

>It’s time for Richard Stallman to go I was expecting to see this, there is nothing more corporations would like more then to see him gone. Then they can take full control of the FSF, already they have their hands in it. So far many of his predictions have come true and there are a few more that seems to be on their way to happening. What FSF should do is work stop the move to secure boot. Already there are Intel Lap…

> Then they can take full control of the FSF, already they have their hands in it. This is neither good nor bad, so I'm not sure why your whole point seemingly is based on it. Corporations will act in their own self-interests just like everyone else. There are examples of where corporations worked together and it turned out well for all and examples of the opposite happening, so I'm not sure why this is necessarily f…

If you don't see why it doesn't fit here not sure what could be done to help it :( Its full bad.

Re: The Free Software Foundation is dying

#25

> We need more leaders of color, women, LGBTQ representation, and others besides. The present leadership, particularly from RMS, creates an exclusionary environment in a place where inclusion and representation are important for the success of the movement. I'm not a fan of RMS, but this is the exact kind of left wing platitude that people think will revive an organization, but really just signals thats the organizat…

Anyone promoting diversity as an end goal in and of itself, especially as a solution to a political organization focused on politics other than race, gender identity, etc. is simply promoting distracting the organization from its real goals. Just like how the schedules for all conferences about various technical subjects become 50%+ "Navel gazing about being X in tech" instead of about, y'know, the tech. The FSF's limited political capital will be more and more wasted on various diversity initiatives instead of their primary goals of promoting software freedom. And unfortunately I think the FSF has already fallen victim to this trend to various extents, but following the author's advice will merely accelerate it.

Re: The Free Software Foundation is dying

#26

> We need more leaders of color, women, LGBTQ representation, and others besides. The present leadership, particularly from RMS, creates an exclusionary environment in a place where inclusion and representation are important for the success of the movement. I'm not a fan of RMS, but this is the exact kind of left wing platitude that people think will revive an organization, but really just signals thats the organizat…

Could not agree with you more, it's one thing to say a person is a product of their time and we need leadership to take the same approach however with new modern social viewpoints and diplomatic approaches. RMS is not a proper businessman, and not a social butterfly either, he has many haters whether you agree with what he says or not.

However, it is a complete other thing to say 'we'll fix this with more inclusion, yep, that'll fix it', this is the pinnacle of doing the least amount of effort, just like a convincing leader that use anecdotes to sell their vision..its cheap.

Re: The Free Software Foundation is dying

#27
> Reform the leadership. It’s time for Richard Stallman to go.

> We need more leaders of color, women, LGBTQ representation, and others besides.

Stallman is in many ways a problem - but the solution is finding technically and socially competent leadership with a vision that aligns with the core ideologies of the FSF and the ability to lay it out as a coherent long-term plan.

Forced diversity has not ever and will not ever make that sort of thing easier to achieve.

Re: The Free Software Foundation is dying

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then they can take full control of the FSF, already they have their hands in it. This is neither good nor bad, so I'm not sure why your whole point seemingly is based on it. Corporations will act in their own self-interests just like everyone else. There are examples of where corporations worked together and it turned out well for all and examples of the opposite happening, so I'm not sure why this is necessarily f…

> Corporations will act in their own self-interests just like everyone else. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

If the foundation is set up to allow this, then that's a fault of the structure of the foundation.

Re: The Free Software Foundation is dying

#29

The Free software foundation needs its Martin Luther and Reformation. Stallman has quite literally become the pope of the Free software foundation and we need to remember that like with the Protestant Reformation, the individual has their own, unmediated relationship with free software. There are other apt analogies between the Protestant Reformation and the Free software foundation but I will leave discovering that…

Well, based on your analogy, people unsatisfied with Stallman, should leave the FSF and found their own "church" instead of trying to destroy his image and legacy, or at least to take FSF by force. (I don't have an opinion about Stallman. My comment is just about your analogy).

Re: The Free Software Foundation is dying

#30
Maybe it’s dying because it already succeeded in its goals. That’s a good thing. From my myopic perspective, RMS is FSF. And he has changed the discussion around software forever. Now we need another kind of freedom, we feel it but cannot articulate it. And whoever articulates it, I wish them all the best, whether they do so under the banner of FSF or something else. One thing I am almost sure of is that whatever watering down of FSF message, as I feel this article suggests, will not be it.
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