Easy prediction: people who have been taught to confuse #FreeSoftware and #OpenSource through the misleading terms #FOSS and #FLOSS will now be led to further accept the privatization of #knowledge by small, innovative (and easy to acquire) #ethical start-ups.
@Shamar
Perhaps an unpopular opinion, the obvious ambiguity of the word free in the context of software doomed the movement from ever spreading to the mainstream. Not a single non-technical person I've ever met really appreciated the phrase or its importance even after explanation, and the movement is older than I am.
Wholeheartedly agree re: ethical startups though. #WorkerOwnedCollectives need to become the norm.
As for the "stigma" of the "free" world, tbh I've always thought it's just bullshit.
Recently I realized that it's just an #US and #corporate issue (because current #capitalism is itself a US thing, despite being an evolution of a way more ancient system).
Having said that, obviously to people who can't code #FreeSoftware is totally equivalent to #proprietary one except for the price.
There is no #freedom to study, modify and distribute modified versions for them.
This is something that we should fix, by teaching everybody how to #program and #debug.
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As for #WorkerOwnedCollectives, do you have any link to share? Sound interesting, but I know nothing about them.
@Shamar
Absolutely agree about how everyone needs to learn how to program and debug; if the Internet survives the biosphere crisis, I fully expect basic web languages to be considered a form of literacy in the future in economically prosperous countries.
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This is embarrassing but I actually need to do more reading into worker owned collectives myself, so I'll be sure to toot something at a later date. The gist as I understand it is that it's a company where each employee is also a full owner and instead of generating profits for a legally separate corporate entity, profits are fully distributed among worker-owners. I imagine it's like if the entire company is unionized instead of the historical management/union dichotomy.
I only learned about them from the CSL (I think it is) that went around the fediverse a bit ago; a software license that can only be used by individuals and worker owned collectives.
#workerownedcollectives #debug #program #freedom #proprietary #freesoftware #capitalism #corporate #us