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Todd C. Miller – Sudo maintainer for over 30 years

millert.dev

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Re: Todd C. Miller – Sudo maintainer for over 30 years

#11

Post by acuozzo »

palmotea wrote: post #6
stego-tech wrote: post #3

This is why Big Tech is so desperate for AI to work as a wholesale replacement for software developers: they do not pay for their Open Source consumption as-is, and new maintainers aren’t stepping up because they can’t afford rent, let alone to devote their full time to FOSS work free of charge like a lot of older project maintainers do. The fact that sudo is a critical security pillar for trillions of dollars of glo…

Honestly, it seems like the idealism of open source shouldn't have survived its contact with capitalism, but I suppose the contact wasn't painful enough the the exploitation continued for a long time. Maybe we need a license that's even more onerous to corporations than the AGPL, like something with a revenue share clause. Or maybe the problem is the naivete of software engineers. In aggregate, there was so much embr…

> the idealism of open source shouldn't have survived its contact with capitalism

The US economy of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s made it possible.

Re: Todd C. Miller – Sudo maintainer for over 30 years

#12

Post by softfalcon »

palmotea wrote: post #6
stego-tech wrote: post #3

This is why Big Tech is so desperate for AI to work as a wholesale replacement for software developers: they do not pay for their Open Source consumption as-is, and new maintainers aren’t stepping up because they can’t afford rent, let alone to devote their full time to FOSS work free of charge like a lot of older project maintainers do. The fact that sudo is a critical security pillar for trillions of dollars of glo…

Honestly, it seems like the idealism of open source shouldn't have survived its contact with capitalism, but I suppose the contact wasn't painful enough the the exploitation continued for a long time. Maybe we need a license that's even more onerous to corporations than the AGPL, like something with a revenue share clause. Or maybe the problem is the naivete of software engineers. In aggregate, there was so much embr…

I don't mean to come across as far too cynical, but in what world has a software license ever stopped the greedy and powerful from pillaging the IP of other people smaller and weaker than them?

In my opinion, libertarianism in software is a hollow dream that leads people to make foolish decisions that can't be protected. This makes it easy for corporations to exploit and quash any barely audible opposition.

Almost as if by plan, the libertarian mindset has eroded and weakened open source protections, defanging and declawing it every step of the way.

Re: Todd C. Miller – Sudo maintainer for over 30 years

#14

Post by drnick1 »

stego-tech wrote: post #3

This is why Big Tech is so desperate for AI to work as a wholesale replacement for software developers: they do not pay for their Open Source consumption as-is, and new maintainers aren’t stepping up because they can’t afford rent, let alone to devote their full time to FOSS work free of charge like a lot of older project maintainers do. The fact that sudo is a critical security pillar for trillions of dollars of glo…

> and new maintainers aren’t stepping up because they can’t afford rent, let alone to devote their full time to FOSS work free of charge like a lot of older project maintainers do.

What about the Rust rewrite (sudo-rs)? I think it shows people are interested in maintaining and/or modernizing tools taken for granted.

Re: Todd C. Miller – Sudo maintainer for over 30 years

#15

Post by functionmouse »

htx80nerd wrote: post #7
stego-tech wrote: post #3

This is why Big Tech is so desperate for AI to work as a wholesale replacement for software developers: they do not pay for their Open Source consumption as-is, and new maintainers aren’t stepping up because they can’t afford rent, let alone to devote their full time to FOSS work free of charge like a lot of older project maintainers do. The fact that sudo is a critical security pillar for trillions of dollars of glo…

>"it screams volumes about the current state of technology." about the current state of Big Corp vampires who are happy to bleed everyone dry to put more $$ in their own very fat pockets

Our economic system starves you to death if you don't

People aren't vampires because they're on top, they're on top because they're vampires.

Shit flows downstream

Re: Todd C. Miller – Sudo maintainer for over 30 years

#16

Post by whatis991 »

stego-tech wrote: post #3

This is why Big Tech is so desperate for AI to work as a wholesale replacement for software developers: they do not pay for their Open Source consumption as-is, and new maintainers aren’t stepping up because they can’t afford rent, let alone to devote their full time to FOSS work free of charge like a lot of older project maintainers do. The fact that sudo is a critical security pillar for trillions of dollars of glo…

This might be a controversial view:

What if the exploitative aspect is open source itself? Trick some above average but naive developers into giving their talent, effort, insights and time away for free or very little? Maybe open source or something similar could have been organized in a way that wasn't exploitative and wasn't (possibly) unsustainable, but that is not how things ended up with what Richard Stallman and others organized.

Re: Todd C. Miller – Sudo maintainer for over 30 years

#17

Post by whatis991 »

drnick1 wrote: post #14
stego-tech wrote: post #3

This is why Big Tech is so desperate for AI to work as a wholesale replacement for software developers: they do not pay for their Open Source consumption as-is, and new maintainers aren’t stepping up because they can’t afford rent, let alone to devote their full time to FOSS work free of charge like a lot of older project maintainers do. The fact that sudo is a critical security pillar for trillions of dollars of glo…

> and new maintainers aren’t stepping up because they can’t afford rent, let alone to devote their full time to FOSS work free of charge like a lot of older project maintainers do. What about the Rust rewrite (sudo-rs)? I think it shows people are interested in maintaining and/or modernizing tools taken for granted.

It has a more lax license AFAIK. Also, many Rust projects and libraries have been abandoned, or are in so-so shapes.

Edit:

To specify, new projects like sudo-rs may seem promising, but going by observation and experience with similar projects, there is no guarantee that sudo-rs and similar projects will be successful, good and continued to be maintained. The problems with old projects can end up applying to new projects as well. And projects in Rust are no exception, going by experience with existing, older Rust projects.

Aside, a pet peeve I have is that for instance Ruffle has not turned out as successful as I had hoped for, even after several years and many sponsors. The proprietary Flash runtimes written in C still outperform Ruffle greatly in some cases, causing problems for some users that want to use Ruffle instead of other runtimes.

Re: Todd C. Miller – Sudo maintainer for over 30 years

#18

Post by calvinmorrison »

stego-tech wrote: post #10
palmotea wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, it seems like the idealism of open source shouldn't have survived its contact with capitalism, but I suppose the contact wasn't painful enough the the exploitation continued for a long time. Maybe we need a license that's even more onerous to corporations than the AGPL, like something with a revenue share clause. Or maybe the problem is the naivete of software engineers. In aggregate, there was so much embr…

Been pitching that with my FOSS colleagues and peers for years, now. A license for individual and educational use, but pay-to-play for anyone tangentially making revenue from its use. Then the conversation boils down to the business engineering of how much should something cost, with some arguing for flat yearly rates, and others arguing for cost-per-unit, while others still fret about "disrupting" the status quo imm…

can't wait for popularity-contest(1) to be mandatory and required a linked credit card.
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