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I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

adayinthelifeof.nl

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Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> As you do, I find the discourse around tech to be a pit of dismissiveness, avoidance, denial, resignation, and learned-helplessness. Do you think this is why people are abandoning the GPL license in favor of MIT/BSD? Something about the fight the GPL aims to win being a hopeless fantasy? In the face of the sentiment you and OP express, I'd think GPL usage would be widespread.

I think a lot of distaste towards GPL comes from devs with corporate day jobs who feel frustrated that anything GPL licensed is functionally off-limits at work because there’s no way legal would approve of using it, and certainly would not approve of open sourcing whatever project is built with the GPL thing. I can see where such an individual might think to themselves, “I don’t want to put other devs in my position…

Right, corporate lawyers are ideological activists trying to kill GPL. But the campaign to denigrate the ideological activists on the other side is much more successful.

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#352
post #210
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a developer my problem with the GPL is that it's less free than other licenses. It's an interesting legal hack, but it can only succeed in its goals by boiling the ocean. I just want to write things, and sometimes making money involves not publishing all of your source code. Having to choose between options and idealism limits the popularity of GPL projects.

> I just want to write things, and sometimes making money involves not publishing all of your source code. I've made lots of money and I publish every piece of code I've ever written to do it. What you are describing must have been written by someone who does not believe in software freedoms. Software freedom is an ideology, not a license. If you license part of your software as free software but not other parts of y…

  What you are describing must have been written by someone who does not believe in software freedoms.
That seems to be a common sentiment, that preferring non-GPL projects is about exploitation, and I don’t think it makes any sense. The GPL is a contact that takes away some rights of the people using it, and that makes everyone freer? I understand the goal of wanting users to have rights that they would not otherwise have, but binding every developer in the hope of eventually binding multinational organizations seems like an awfully high price to pay.

  I've made lots of money and I publish every piece of code I've ever written to do it.
If only this were the common case. I once asked Stallman if he had any ideas on how we might make that more common, and all he said was it wasn’t his problem. I agree that it’s not his problem, but the prevailing solution seems to be to avoid the GPL. I think that many people would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#353
post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I get angry about not being able to do anything about anything. And this is my way of trying to do something about it. It's the best I can do. This attitude is gold, and it's what changes the whole world. What you said about the misery of "news" resonates with me. In psyops we call it "sapping". Propaganda designed to demoralise, dispirit and corrode resistance used to come from our enemies . The classic example wa…

> As you do, I find the discourse around tech to be a pit of dismissiveness, avoidance, denial, resignation, and learned-helplessness I have a whole tirade on this, but I completely agree. It seemed while going through college that the whole prescriptivism and general attitudes in tech are built in such a way so as to discourage certain mindsets which the industry DESPERATELY needs, and my hypothesis is that not havi…

An unfortunately large subset of too-comfortable tech workers have decreed the right way is to: never reinvent the wheel, always import, and avoid 'the hard stuff'.

The sad bit? They're well compensated for this learned inability, so arguably they made the truly smart choice here.

To the blessed few who reject this apathy and continue building new innovations? I salute you o7

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#354
post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As you do, I find the discourse around tech to be a pit of dismissiveness, avoidance, denial, resignation, and learned-helplessness I have a whole tirade on this, but I completely agree. It seemed while going through college that the whole prescriptivism and general attitudes in tech are built in such a way so as to discourage certain mindsets which the industry DESPERATELY needs, and my hypothesis is that not havi…

An unfortunately large subset of too-comfortable tech workers have decreed the right way is to: never reinvent the wheel, always import, and avoid 'the hard stuff'. The sad bit? They're well compensated for this learned inability, so arguably they made the truly smart choice here. To the blessed few who reject this apathy and continue building new innovations? I salute you o7

An unfortunately large subset of tech workers have decreed the right way is to always reinvent the wheel, never import, and avoid 'reading documentation'. The worst bit? They're very well compensated for it, so arguably they made the true smart choice here. To the blessed few who reject NIH syndrome and use existing solutions? I salute you!

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#355
post #345
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Stuff is bad, fascism is on the rise, mega corporations control more and more wealth, those two things feed on each other, book banning in the US, war in Ukraine, my country is burning due to global warming, ... and all of this bad news damages the psyche. Turn off the news. We are living in unprecedentedly peaceful and prosperous times, and it's only getting better day by day. That is a fact. If you feel otherwise…

> and it's only getting better day by day. That is a fact. Ever heard of climate change and mass extinction? That is super bad, and unprecedented. Society may well not survive it, in a timeline of a few decades. I think there are reasons to be worried.

Yes climate change and mass extinction is bad. Yes society will survive. No, climate change does not mean that things are getting worse.

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#356
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

At least make your own argument, don't ask ChatGPT to do it for you. ChatGPT is really stretching to make your point though, as you can see from the laughable use of the phrase "Another striking resemblance between browsers and operating systems" after just listing a bunch of web APIs that no one cares about. (WebVR? Get out of here...)

[flagged]

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#359
post #355
post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and it's only getting better day by day. That is a fact. Ever heard of climate change and mass extinction? That is super bad, and unprecedented. Society may well not survive it, in a timeline of a few decades. I think there are reasons to be worried.

Yes climate change and mass extinction is bad. Yes society will survive. No, climate change does not mean that things are getting worse.

> Yes society will survive. No, climate change does not mean that things are getting worse.

Either you are insanely optimistic (to a point where it is actually ridiculous), or you lack information.

You do realize that climate change is, right now, going to make entire parts of Earth unlivable (the most humid ones, around the equator), right? As in "human beings won't be able to survive outdoors on their own because it is too warm"?

You do realize that this means billions of climate refugees, which in turn means global instability, wars and famines, right?

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#360
post #359
post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes climate change and mass extinction is bad. Yes society will survive. No, climate change does not mean that things are getting worse.

> Yes society will survive. No, climate change does not mean that things are getting worse. Either you are insanely optimistic (to a point where it is actually ridiculous), or you lack information. You do realize that climate change is, right now, going to make entire parts of Earth unlivable (the most humid ones, around the equator), right? As in "human beings won't be able to survive outdoors on their own because i…

> Either you are insanely optimistic (to a point where it is actually ridiculous), or you lack information.

Or, option #3, you've been on a diet consisting almost exclusively of negative news and have adopted a doomer mindset as a result.

The world is actively combating and will fix climate change.

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