I’m retired and doing hobby projects in Python and java, so I get choices (including not playing) but wtf, big tech figured out how to take over open source?
A cynical explanation would be using the EEE theory to explain all of this.
A more nuanced one would be that corporations benefit from open source since it creates an easier pipeline to onboard engineers and they also benefit from the free labor that people put into the projects out of passion. Whether they want to kill OSS after embracing it is debatable, but they definitely want to have as much leverage on it as possible.
Bill Gates stated: “One thing we have got to change in our strategy – allowing Office documents to be rendered very well by other people’s browsers is one of the most destructive things we could do to the company. We have to stop putting any effort into this and make sure that Office documents very well depend on proprietary IE capabilities. Anything else is suicide for our platform. This is a case where Office has to avoid doing something to destroy Windows.”
I feel like a good illustration would be a bicycle.
My bicycle works fine, a little slow, but it beats walking, and requires little to no outside resources or upkeep.
My neighbor, Joe Microsoft, slaps an 80cc motor on my bike. It’s a lot faster, and less work for me, and Joe keeps it full of gas and tuned up, and fixes it when it breaks.
I need Joe now to support my biking. I no longer have the resources to do it at this level, but Joe does.
Is that about right? Are we selling open source for speed and convenience?
I’m retired and doing hobby projects in Python and java, so I get choices (including not playing) but wtf, big tech figured out how to take over open source?
That’s particularly evil.
Python’s creator and BDfL works at Microsoft.
I’m not trying to be like some HOLY MOUNTAIN that no unclean things can ever touch.
I’m just trying to keep myself free. I’ll use people’s stuff. If that starts becoming bondage, I’m out
A cynical explanation would be using the EEE theory to explain all of this.
A more nuanced one would be that corporations benefit from open source since it creates an easier pipeline to onboard engineers and they also benefit from the free labor that people put into the projects out of passion. Whether they want to kill OSS after embracing it is debatable, but they definitely want to have as much leverage on it as possible.
That Wikipedia is a gold mine of evil.
They can support these languages because they have the resources to do so.
I feel like a good illustration would be a bicycle.
Is that about right? Are we selling open source for speed and convenience?