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/foss/ - Software Freedom General
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2026 5:07 pm
by Thricegreat
Discuss any topics related to software freedom, FSF, Right to Repair, &c.
Re: /foss/ - Software Freedom General
Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2026 7:54 am
by Thricegreat
I think "Free" in free software means controllable. So "Free Software" means controllable software. I always have been thinking that Stallman needlessly uses buzzwords.
And it is a serious problem. Because it is related to things like alienation by Marx or power process by Ted Kaczynski.
By the way I also think that "Power process" is just a technical term for purposes. What Ted wrote about was the widespread loss of purposes.
Re: /foss/ - Software Freedom General
Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2026 10:27 pm
by drummyfish
Thricegreat wrote: Sat Jun 20, 2026 7:54 am
I think "Free" in free software means controllable. So "Free Software" means controllable software.
I agree and I think it's why a lot of the discussion has shifted from licenses towards minimalism -- after a while corporations (and similar parties) found a way to take user control away even for the software with a free license, through what is colloquially called "bloat" (price of maintenance, know how, extremely difficult building process etc.). They happily embrace "open source" because it's little more than a brand today, software such as Android is really de facto proprietary. So I think you're spot on with the observation, the core question we must always be asking is who can,
in practical terms, exercise
all four of the essential freedoms.