[theoretical] What would the real impacts of FOSS software becoming more prevalent in all segments of society? (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Thumbing through the feed, the news on how this or that organization letting go of commercial options for day to day operations are mounting.

This led me to wonder what would be the impact if FOSS, be it on the OS front, productivity front or whatever, was to become truly a relevant option.

I'm painfully aware of the difficulties I've faced trying to take a few online courses to be faced with borderline desdain for not using Windows/Office/Etc and opting for FOSS solutions.

Paying/supporting a FOSS solution does not offend me. I'm happier when giving money directly to a developer or project than to an opaque company. But I'm just one.

But what could happen if the ones became millions, actively contributing with a few coins per year to projects we use daily?

What could/would happen in the short term (under a year), medium-long (one to three years) and the long term (over ten years)?

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[-] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago

From enduser perspective the most visible change would be that all software wouldn't be hostile to users because with propreitary you have to be very picky to get that.

In the long term we would see that companies could not build walled gardens to block off competition. Contrast Windows & MacOS vs Linux with its different distros, DEs, toolkits etc.

The least difference would be for enterprise because support is expensive either way.

this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2025

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