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Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

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Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#121

Post by jordigh »

spiralpolitik wrote: post #75
jordigh wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder sometimes if this is the legacy that RMS was thinking about. No. Free software was never about no money being involved. In fact, RMS himself used to get a lot of money by selling free software. Back in the day when Emacs was too big for the internet, RMS used to sell Emacs tapes at 100 USD each (with documentation and source code, of course). In fact, he still thinks that you should be charging money for d…

It doesn't seem to be happening this way because FSF fundamentalists like RMS want the whole hog to be 'Free Software' not just 'Open Source'. Any compromise is unacceptable even if it means cutting off their nose to spite their face. See what happened to VLC as an example.

Open source and free software are synonyms. They refer to the same category of software. RMS doesn't have anything against open source software. He's got something against people de-emphasising the freedom parts of free software by calling it open source, but he doesn't think non-copyleft licenses are doing any harm.

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#122

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

erichmond wrote: post #96
fivedogit wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're our own worst enemies. Software developers have this sort of circular firing squad where nobody wants to be the first to keep their source closed and try to charge for it. Because then you're just "greedy" and not pure enough. But that'll never change unless all of a sudden we say "Ok, on the count of 3, everybody stop giving away their hard-earned expertise for free. 1... 2... 3..." We're like musicians nowada…

Why in the world would this be downvoted? There is nothing inflammatory about this post at all. He's bringing up a widely debated point in our industry.

Probably because we're talking about encryption software ITT, and nobody would trust closed source encryption software.

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#124

Post by tempestn »

gandalfu wrote: post #15
agwa wrote: post #4

Calling GnuPG "email encryption software" really understates its importance. It's also used in countless applications to encrypt data at rest, and GPG signatures are used to secure the distribution of software. For instance, GPG is an essential part of the package managers of Debian, Ubuntu, and RedHat. Here is a link to the donation page: https://gnupg.org/donate/index.html

Thanks for the link, just donated!

Ditto. Was just talking with one of my employees this week about setting up encrypted email. Right now we use OTR chat for any sensitive stuff, but that's not always the most convenient channel. Like most others I had no idea this project was so under-funded.

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#125

Post by jordigh »

mentat wrote: post #88
jordigh wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder sometimes if this is the legacy that RMS was thinking about. No. Free software was never about no money being involved. In fact, RMS himself used to get a lot of money by selling free software. Back in the day when Emacs was too big for the internet, RMS used to sell Emacs tapes at 100 USD each (with documentation and source code, of course). In fact, he still thinks that you should be charging money for d…

That was when distribution was via physical media. People don't value bits on the wire the same way nor view "distribution" as a valuable function.

Then is selling apps on app stores not profitable anymore? I was under the impression that it was.

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#127

Post by tempestn »

moreati wrote: post #21

In the last hour or so (I think since this hit the front page) there have been approximately €2000 of donations added to the drive at https://gnupg.org/ , nudging it over €40000. Please do your part, and keep that bar moving.

Over €55000 now!

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#128

Post by [deleted] »

erichmond wrote: post #96
fivedogit wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're our own worst enemies. Software developers have this sort of circular firing squad where nobody wants to be the first to keep their source closed and try to charge for it. Because then you're just "greedy" and not pure enough. But that'll never change unless all of a sudden we say "Ok, on the count of 3, everybody stop giving away their hard-earned expertise for free. 1... 2... 3..." We're like musicians nowada…

Why in the world would this be downvoted? There is nothing inflammatory about this post at all. He's bringing up a widely debated point in our industry.

[deleted]

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#129

Post by acveilleux »

rmc wrote: post #57
agwa wrote: post #4

Calling GnuPG "email encryption software" really understates its importance. It's also used in countless applications to encrypt data at rest, and GPG signatures are used to secure the distribution of software. For instance, GPG is an essential part of the package managers of Debian, Ubuntu, and RedHat. Here is a link to the donation page: https://gnupg.org/donate/index.html

Why aren't those organisations paying him money?

For the most part, they're open source and have no significant revenue.

Or they're small for-profit companies and they can't spare the revenue.

Or they're large companies and no one with a budget and decision power is even aware they use the product.

Or they're Red Hat... With limited budget for this and unlimited needs to cover.

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#130

Post by jordigh »

ta_75000 wrote: post #86
jordigh wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder sometimes if this is the legacy that RMS was thinking about. No. Free software was never about no money being involved. In fact, RMS himself used to get a lot of money by selling free software. Back in the day when Emacs was too big for the internet, RMS used to sell Emacs tapes at 100 USD each (with documentation and source code, of course). In fact, he still thinks that you should be charging money for d…

There is a considerable portion of the open source community which views capitalizing on software as inherently immoral. As soon as Werner Koch started charging money for it, most people would switch to a free fork or distribute it on the black market to spite him.

I don't see this happening with FFTW or Qt. Apparently selling exceptions is fine? I can imagine a market for selling GPG exceptions.

Also, I know some free games are sold on app stores. Wesnoth comes to mind. Have people come to spite the Wesnoth developers and put the same game on the app store without a fee?

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