I’m unbiased towards the subject. I’m genuinely curious about how long-term FOSS ideology would work.

I’m using FOSS but I’d still consider myself a casual user. It seems like most FOSS I’ve seen is a free, buggy, alternative to mainstream software, which resolves a problem the user had.

From my perspective, (and do correct me if I’m wrong) FOSS doesnt seem sustainable. Everyone can contribute, but how do they make a living? My guess is they do other things for income. And what about the few contributors who do 90% of the work?

What if every software became FOSS? Who would put in the free labor to write the software to print a page, or show an image on screen, or create something more complex like a machine learning advanced AI software?

Would it simply be that everyone provides for each other? Everyone pitches in? What about people who have bills to pay? Would their bills be covered?

This concludes my right-before-bed psychology inquiry.

  • raptir@lemdro.id
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    1 year ago

    Linux is ubiquitous across many devices (you won’t even know you’re using it) and servers yet it’s all based on FOSS. There isn’t an alternative for many of those usage cases.

    Sure there is. There’s always Windows Server or Windows Embedded/IoT.

    • amigan@lemmy.dynatron.me
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      1 year ago

      Yes, under which to do anything worth a damn, you will be using open source toolchains, libraries, and quite possibly whole applications.

    • angrymouse@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If you are not dealing with a legacy project, windows server is the definition is insanity. Even projects that still use windows server usually use in a VM running on Linux.

      • raptir@lemdro.id
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        1 year ago

        I didn’t say there were good alternatives, just that there were alternatives.