You don't use open source software because it's better (it usually isn't).
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@mcc FOSS is often better in my experience though? Sure, there are issues but pretty much everything else I try is worse.
@mcc Also there is some (less nowadays but still some) closed-source for-profit software you can own. I’m kind of impressed at how wrong this entire post is
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You don't use open source software because it's better (it usually isn't).
You don't use open source software because it's freer (it only sometimes is).
You don't use open source software because it's got better politics (it isn't always).
You use open source software because *it is the only option*. In the long run, if it isn't open source, it doesn't exist.
image source: keithstack.com
@mcc any software that needs to communicate with a license server has a single point of failure. If someone’s writing code to deliberately stop their product working in a given circumstance then they are baking In unreliability and increasing support costs. There’s very few less rewarding tasks than convincing software that you’ve paid for that you’re not actually a thief.
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You don't use open source software because it's better (it usually isn't).
You don't use open source software because it's freer (it only sometimes is).
You don't use open source software because it's got better politics (it isn't always).
You use open source software because *it is the only option*. In the long run, if it isn't open source, it doesn't exist.
image source: keithstack.com
@mcc@mastodon.social thing is, there really isn't anything that would fill that hole
And the claim that open source outlasts proprietary software is a bit [citation needed] -
@mcc Add to that: If it's open source, even a single author project, if support stops, it is still usable.
The mail client I have been using for the last 28 years has not seen any updates for 4 years. The author disappeared without a trace (probably life happened). It still works. I can still compile it. I can still fix the small issues that are annoying. I know, one day I will have to find a replacement, but today is not the day.. probably not even the year.
@attilakinali @mcc damn, what email client is that? im curious
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@attilakinali @mcc damn, what email client is that? im curious
@ozamidas @mcc That's sylpheed https://github.com/sylpheed-mail/sylpheed
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As someone who was a true devotee of FutureWave SmartSketch (which became FutureSplash Animator, which became Macromedia Shockwave Flash, which became Adobe Flash, which became Adobe Animator) my sorrow is incalculable. Every day I long for software I had in the 90s which I can't find anything as good as today.
@mcc Same. It was a revelation and a revolution. So much web content created (sure, not all of it good, but...) An it was, except for crashiness, a pleasure to use.
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@mcc If you use open source software that isn't particularly popular, it might cease to exist as well. I used a "soundtracer" (a kind of synthesizer that you script in a language similar to that being used for POVray scenes) called "sapphire" over a decade ago, and then it suddenly vanished. I can't even find the source anymore, and the last time I downloaded the source a couple of years ago, I couldn't compile it because all the dependencies were outdated.
@LordCaramac @mcc This. The depth of today's software stack, even in OSS, is enormous, and nearly everything is on a mandatory-update treadmill thanks to compiler and runtime developers no longer caring about backward compatibility. And you can't just not update because everything is exposed to network-borne threats (and other stuff you want/need to run requires newer dependencies).
I've gotten saltier about this in the past 20 years.
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As someone who was a true devotee of FutureWave SmartSketch (which became FutureSplash Animator, which became Macromedia Shockwave Flash, which became Adobe Flash, which became Adobe Animator) my sorrow is incalculable. Every day I long for software I had in the 90s which I can't find anything as good as today.
@mcc I still remember how excellent and affordable Cool Edit Pro was until Adobe bought it, rebranded it as Adobe Audition, and made the price instantly astronomical.
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You don't use open source software because it's better (it usually isn't).
You don't use open source software because it's freer (it only sometimes is).
You don't use open source software because it's got better politics (it isn't always).
You use open source software because *it is the only option*. In the long run, if it isn't open source, it doesn't exist.
image source: keithstack.com
@mcc tbh it depends on the field, in some fields the open source option is the better option
but yeah, in many, many fields, that isn't the case
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@mcc This made me remember all the awesome, free games on Newgrounds and other sites
@BoredomFestival @mcc the name of the project escapes me, but I believe there was a project a few years ago that has thousands? of newground games and a shell/wrapper around it to play them.
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You don't use open source software because it's better (it usually isn't).
You don't use open source software because it's freer (it only sometimes is).
You don't use open source software because it's got better politics (it isn't always).
You use open source software because *it is the only option*. In the long run, if it isn't open source, it doesn't exist.
image source: keithstack.com
@mcc Using Twitter as the first time that a lot of people experienced this, I have started pitching this idea as "if a petulant billionaire decides to destroy this project, how much would he need to pay?" Every point of centralization is now a massive vulnerability instead of a cost-cutting necessity, because you don't even need the petulant billionaire.
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You don't use open source software because it's better (it usually isn't).
You don't use open source software because it's freer (it only sometimes is).
You don't use open source software because it's got better politics (it isn't always).
You use open source software because *it is the only option*. In the long run, if it isn't open source, it doesn't exist.
image source: keithstack.com
@mcc Right but open source software can get abandoned too
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@mcc any software that needs to communicate with a license server has a single point of failure. If someone’s writing code to deliberately stop their product working in a given circumstance then they are baking In unreliability and increasing support costs. There’s very few less rewarding tasks than convincing software that you’ve paid for that you’re not actually a thief.
@technicaladept @mcc I actually bought some software years and years ago that was perfect for doing some SQL Synchronization. They wanted me to update and said my version was expired. (cost over 2k!)
So, I set up a Windows 7 VM and set the date to 2007. Still works fine.
however, that may be a "if the date is past x then go check the license" rather than "try the license server"
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As someone who was a true devotee of FutureWave SmartSketch (which became FutureSplash Animator, which became Macromedia Shockwave Flash, which became Adobe Flash, which became Adobe Animator) my sorrow is incalculable. Every day I long for software I had in the 90s which I can't find anything as good as today.
@mcc we should have a law/regulation that says that any discontinued/non-supported software MUST be made #opensource
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You don't use open source software because it's better (it usually isn't).
You don't use open source software because it's freer (it only sometimes is).
You don't use open source software because it's got better politics (it isn't always).
You use open source software because *it is the only option*. In the long run, if it isn't open source, it doesn't exist.
image source: keithstack.com
@mcc Not to undermine your point, but this strikes me as more of an open file format issue than an issue of software as such. As long as we have open file formats, we can never be locked into a vendor.
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@LordCaramac @Lenni @RogerBW @mcc I got the source to compile on my 64-bit Debian Trixie with gcc 14 with some minor tweaking: https://codeberg.org/indigoparadox/sapphire
It seems to run enough to get a REPL going, but I haven't played with it yet. There's some gnarly pointer/int math going on so who knows how it'll fare in 64-bit land?
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You don't use open source software because it's better (it usually isn't).
You don't use open source software because it's freer (it only sometimes is).
You don't use open source software because it's got better politics (it isn't always).
You use open source software because *it is the only option*. In the long run, if it isn't open source, it doesn't exist.
image source: keithstack.com
@mcc And that's why I'm trying to switch jobs
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@stib @BoloMKXXVIII @MisterWanko @mcc If only open source linux software came with better names it'd be significantly better!
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@mcc I take exception to the line: You don't use open source software because it's better (it usually isn't).
I have been using OSS since the 90's. Back then it might have been true, and there are still some holes in some categories of OSS software, but I wouldn't trade my OSS software for today's closed source software even if someone else was paying for it.
@BoloMKXXVIII @mcc Basically the places where people are using F/OSS because it's better are the same places where people forget that they're using F/OSS. Eg, web servers. Everyone's using Apache or nginx, and it's not like they're saying "oh I'll skip MS IIS and use a free server instead", they just use nginx because it's the default option for any serious infrastructure.
Some day apps will be like that as well, but we have some walled gardens to topple first.
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@mcc Right but open source software can get abandoned too
