Live data from Hacker News

Blender Is Free Software

code.blender.org

91–100 of 335 posts

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#91

When 90% of the plugins and tutorials are available for proprietary software it’s hard to support blender. It also doesn’t help that the UI of the blender is extremely hostile for new users. When other tools are easier to use and have better tooling it’s hard to justify the usage of blender.

2.8 is a big step forward for the new user experience.

https://www.blender.org/2-8/#user-interface

They’re also finally switching the default to left click select. Having to select with right click was one of the big things that made the UI feel really alien for anyone who hasn’t used it a lot.

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangent Animation is trying to change this! They use almost 100% Blender, have some developers and contribute back to the community. See "Next-Gen" on Netflix for their latest movie. Disclaimer: Worked for them as a Blender developer on Next-Gen

The whole movie is made by Blender? What was the pitfall? Is there any dev blog I can read?

Here’s some info I found: https://www.blendernation.com/2018/08/20/next-gen-blender-pr...

Looks like a good movie. And Netflix dubbed it to Swedish! Will probably watch it with my kids some time.

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#93
post #48
post #18

I try to say libre software rather than Free Software , and I wish the FSF would back the libre term fully. When RMS is giving a speech, he has an opportunity to expound on what's now wordplay about "free software", to a captive audience that's perhaps already receptive or prepared to listen. But low-level grassroots advocacy opportunities often happen in contexts in which people are talking for some other purpose, a…

Isn't it fascinating that the English language doesn't have a distinction between the social meaning of free and the economic, in that these meanings are meshed into the same word?

Every language has its quirks. French doesn't distinguish between ape and monkey (singe) -- the famous French novel "La Planète des singes" known from the various American movies in the original and remade "Planet of the Apes" series could just as well be translated as "Planet of the Monkeys". Similarly, German doesn't really distinguish between science and other academic subjects -- "Wissenschaft" can mean science, but also includes much of what people in English call the humanities.

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#94
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a soon-to-be third year CS student. If I started to use the term "libre software" I'd be ridiculed to hell and back. I think you overestimate the receptiveness of developers.

I'm not sure how to interpret your reply in the context of what the parent is saying. Of course if it's not common to use the term then people will find it odd, out of place or maybe even pretentious. If some influential people manage to push it, eventually it'll be accepted. If our industry as a whole managed to utter words like "cloud computing", "webscale" or "full stack" with a straight face I really think "libre…

Oh wow, "full stack" is now not only unfashionable, but considered so ridiculous as to be laughable? "Cloud" I get, it has always been a nonsensical marketing term, but "full stack" at least has honest roots in the term LAMP.

I still provision my own Linux (VPS) servers, administer MariaDB on them and string it all together with PHP and sprinkle in non-trivial Javascrpt for UI and graphing. My company is profitable, customers are happy, and my software feeds 2 families well.

My methods are antiquated, sure, but if me telling people I'm a full stack developer is laughable/wrong, then I'm truly lost.

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#95
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about “freedom software“? I know it’s grammatically incorrect but it sends the right message.

Speaking as an Australian, a “Freedom” prefix makes it sound like yet another cheesy American grab at patriotism. (This may come across as snark, but it seriously isn’t. “Freedom” anything has been polluted, IMHO)

Speaking as an American, that's exactly what I first thought too.

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#96

Wait a second. Shouldn’t it be possible for someone to sell a Blender add-on but it keep it closed source and non-GPL? That’s just writing code for an API. As we all know from Google vs Oracle case it would be disastrous if API’s could be copyrighted. GPL is “just” a copyright license. I’m not sure how Blender add-ons work though.

GPL-licensed projects can't link against non-GPL code. This provision is extended to cover plugins and functional extensions of interpreted environments. That's why a lot of people don't like the GPL.

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLPlugins

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfInterpreterIsGPL

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#97
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a soon-to-be third year CS student. If I started to use the term "libre software" I'd be ridiculed to hell and back. I think you overestimate the receptiveness of developers.

I'm not sure how to interpret your reply in the context of what the parent is saying. Of course if it's not common to use the term then people will find it odd, out of place or maybe even pretentious. If some influential people manage to push it, eventually it'll be accepted. If our industry as a whole managed to utter words like "cloud computing", "webscale" or "full stack" with a straight face I really think "libre…

Sure, if a term becomes mainstream it's use is obvious. If you need to explain the connotations of a word in a lengthy forum post it's a pretty good indicator the use of the word is not adviced unless you are a tredn setter. If Elon Musk started to use the word libre software it might become a common enough term. If I use the word libre software I would have to first explain the word 90% of the time and become embarrased for an awkward and pointless use of an obscure term 85% of the time.

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#98
post #74
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I considered this position some years ago, but concluded in the time it takes to explain that libre is a word from another language that means 'free in the sense of speech, not beer', I could just say I'm using the word free in the sense of speech, not beer. These days I don't think the problem is the use of the ostensibly ambiguous word 'free', so much as that people (generic) don't really value freedom (or privacy)…

Yeah the analogy I use is "Feel free to use my garage and tools any time you like, just don't take my stuff and sell it" Unclear about "don't use my tools for monetery gain"

Actually free licenses do not restrict selling the software.

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#99
post #18

I try to say libre software rather than Free Software , and I wish the FSF would back the libre term fully. When RMS is giving a speech, he has an opportunity to expound on what's now wordplay about "free software", to a captive audience that's perhaps already receptive or prepared to listen. But low-level grassroots advocacy opportunities often happen in contexts in which people are talking for some other purpose, a…

I'm a soon-to-be third year CS student. If I started to use the term "libre software" I'd be ridiculed to hell and back. I think you overestimate the receptiveness of developers.

And yet functionality, performant, et al.

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#100
post #30
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somebody recently launched a new site "Blender Depot" which hosts a bunch of Blender add-ons and provides a batch install feature. Some of the add-ons on this site are commercial plugins available for sale by their authors. All Blender plugins have to be GPL so this sort of redistribution is legal but some of these authors have been rather upset about it. So a large argument ensued on the Blender forums about the GPL…

I don't think using an API of a GPL software means your software "has to be" GPL. For example, not all software running on Linux using Linux APIs (syscalls) is GPL.

>I don't think using an API of a GPL software means your software "has to be" GPL.

We should GPL the software that is calling the Api of the GPL software.

>not all software running on Linux using Linux APIs (syscalls) is GPL

This is because linus Torvold(Other contributors) has given the syscall exception along with GPL-2.0. That's why there exists all kind of proprietary software running on top linux os.

Note: I am an open source officer I deal on this topic very often

Post reply on HN