this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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I enjoy my open source work, and if I had the means I would only do open source work, but I can't in today's society. Doesn't mean I don't believe all software should be free, but in how society today is I wouldn't be able to pay for the means to sustain myself and those close to me.
Donations really only go so far and some of the projects I've contributed to are too niche to survive on those :/
I always license my personal projects as free for whoever wants to use it free and wants to contribute back. It's never free for commercial entities though because screw them profiting off of my free labour.
With this, would you still think I'm lost? Or is there some nuance that could be applied if I responded with both wanting all software up be FOSS, but also that I need to have the means to support those around me.
Dual license exists and is fully GPLv3 complaint. I don't see why I'd allow corporations who will profit of my work, to enjoy the fruits of free labour, but you are free (hehe) to have a differing opinion there. Also, most of my licenses are AGPLv3 due to the networked capabilities of that license.
In what way was it not free? If I contributed to the GNU project, and I received nothing in return, what part of that isn't free? I provided my labour for free, and signed the rights away to the license of the FOSS project.
This is something I, as an individual, cannot change. I can push societal change, but for now, we both (you as well) have to sell labour to survive. I assume you have a means of income yourself, so I assume you are breaking your principle as well.
I am not a mega millionaire.. I'm someone who owns no house, but I do have a family, a mother with a disability that cannot work, a boyfriend who is unemployed, a pet who has to have surgery, and so I do need to provide for them. If that makes me your enemy, then so is every factory worker out there.
If needing to support my family means I'm lost, then I will wander forever. I can only guess you have enough money to not need to worry about the realities of surviving in a capitalist society as I there's no alternative to you owning the means to get online on an electronic device, without the means to pay for that.
So do you work, or are you rich? Because that's the only possibility here if you practice what you preach and aren't "selling your programming skills". I'd guess you have to be rich then.