this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023

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Free and Open Source Software

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TC on open source evangelists (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[email protected] - Oh my gosh I just figured it out.

Okay, all you open source evangelist people: your knee-jerk reaction to come at people who are talking about a problem with whatever commercial software they use and suggest Your Favorite Alternatives™ is exactly like saying "why don't you just buy a house?" to someone complaining about their landlord.

[email protected] - Actually, to borrow from @DoubleA, it's worse than that.

It's like talking to someone who is in a crappy apartment as though they have the agency and skills to stake out a plot of land and build their own home.

You have to be at peace with the fact that some people just want to exist and not worry about so many things. And they still have a right to complain about their situation.

Link to thread: https://mas.to/@TechConnectify/111539959265152243

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Better comparison would've been something like "Annoyed with your landlord? Go build a cabin in the woods!". Like, that's straight-up appealing to some people, but it's also not just something anyone and everyone can do.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Even then that's not that accurate, more like move to a different place. It's inconvenient and might not have all the same things you wanted/liked from your old place but you can actually change things in the new place if you really want to

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

More like moving to France. For me it wouldn't be an issue. My french isn't bad and I learn languages quickly.

I assume that's not true of everyone, just like everyone isn't great at PC stuff.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Guy wanted to vent about smart thermostats, explicitly said he doesn't need advice and got bajillion responses with advice, mostly from FOSS folks who couldn't contain themselves. I'd be annoyed too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When I say "don't think of a panda", what do you think of? Pretty much the same thing with saying "don't recommend me FOSS options" lol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

No. Thinking about the panda is involuntary in that scenario. Typing up and submitting an explicitly unwanted response is not involuntary. It's a thing a person chooses to do expressly against the wishes of the person making the request.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That's the biggest annoyance with mastodon

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Who is this and why should we care about his opinion?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He's a pretty awesome educational YouTuber but this is a dumb take. To be fair, he's not a programmer or software guy. I believe his background is in engineering.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even without being a programmer, associating Free Software with a MASSIVE purchase is bonkers.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I know a lot of people (even people who work in IT) who automatically assume free=shitty. It's hard to appreciate just how effective and influential FOSS has been as a business model unless you are immersed in the world of software.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Classic example of judging a book by it's cover I guess. The fact big tech is embracing open source software more and more, you'd think this assessment should no longer be the case.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Damn, I didn't know people couldn't financially afford installing Linux.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Open source is free if you don't value your time." (forgot who that quote is from)

Sometimes the time investment is small, but especially for complex software, the friction of switching from one imperfect (proprietary) software to another imperfect (open) software makes it not really make much sense unless the issue is severe (house is half destroyed).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is basically what he was saying. Open source tends to be a much less plug-and-play out-of-the-box experience, and usually requires at least some IT know-how for it to not be an infuriating experience. A lot of FOSS advocates compensate for that by kind of being that over explaining bro meme and get kinda pushy about getting people over the technical barriers because they want FOSS to be widely adopted and be a real alternative, and for good reasons. But most people don't have the time or patience to stumblefuck their way through IT issues, they just want the shit to work.

It's a fair criticism, accessibility is a big problem in FOSS. We've come a long way, but there's still a long way to go.

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