The idea of free software is extremely socialist/communist. People working together to create something that anyone can use for free, with profit being a non-existent or at least minor motivator.
this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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It's a real shame that generally lefties don't really care about or 'get' software freedom. You should be pushing for free software on all levels. In your personal life and in government. It's crazy how much power a company like Apple, Microsoft or Google has over everyone.
I was leftie before I was techie. If you don't know anything around tech and computers you wouldn't know what to do. Even as a fairly tech-adjacent professional it took me quite a while.
Then again, I only became a real leftie again after kicking all the corpos out of my computer.
Tech used to be (and still is) obscured by heavy gatekeeping. We who understand a little more like to joke about those who don't, and I guess we'll have to stop that if we really want to unite the left. Don't ridicule, explain. The person might never have had a chance to learn the concept.
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It’s pretty hard to fight hegemony when your salary is just built on donations. A lot of important tech is also paid for via government grants then the private sector gets to use it and erect the walled gardens when it should be in the commons.
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Well, there is also a more right leaning take. You take care of your self and scratch your own itch, and you should not be a liability to the society, but make your self useful and contribute back. And I think this is kind of the reason FLOSS works well, it can be aligned with many philosophies.
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TIL: I must be a communist/socialist/leftist/whatever for supporting FOSS. What’s next? Marxism/Leninism? Or maybe I missed that stop, while riding the communism train. Then again, I’m already on Lemmy, so I must be into ML as well, right?
You can support communist/socialist policies without being a tankie. Most rational leftists do. And yeah, if you support FOSS you support a socialist idea. Same if you support public healthcare, public education, or libraries.
Just because an idea is labeled as socialist/capitalist or whatever, doesn’t inherently make it good or bad. People like to label things to simplify complicated topics, but that shortcut isn’t always worth it. Nowadays, I hear a lot of talk about this or that being socialist/communist thing as if that makes it automatically bad. Somehow, I get the feeling that most of those people are Americans. If that’s actually true, it would make a lot of sense.
I don't think we disagree. Just thought it was interesting how closely FOSS ideas match those of communism and socialism, even though a lot of people probably don't view it that way.
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Or just think for yourself and have your own opinions about issues instead of signing up for an entire ideology.
Yep. This is the way, but it won’t stop other people from labeling you regardless.
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Relevant Section under Gift economies:
The expansion of the Internet has witnessed a resurgence of the gift economy, especially in the technology sector. Engineers, scientists, and software developers create open-source software projects. The Linux kernel and the GNU operating system are prototypical examples of the gift economy's prominence in the technology sector and its active role in using permissive free software and copyleft licenses, which allow free reuse of software and knowledge.
Essentially the line of thought is that open source software is an example of mutual aid and the gift economy.
I thought it was an autonomous collective.
Listen, strange penguins biting people is no basis for a system of government.
Supreme executive power derives from using sudo, not some farcical user account control.
Come and see the kernel inherent in my system.
I mean, if I went 'round saying I was a sysadmin just because some angry Finn lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away
Isn't it a benevolent dictatorship with Linus at the head?
Linus' power doesn't come from Ownership, but respect. Anyone can fork it and do what they want, but because Linus is respected, everyone else follows suit.
Anarchism would function in a similar manner, it wouldn't be a bunch of opinionated people doing whatever they want, but people generally listening to experts who don't actually hold systemic power.
Problem is that the average person cannot discern between an actual expert and a charlatan.
And yet Linux works fine. Not everyone needs to be a dev, devs can tell the difference between an expert and a charlatan.
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I would disagree and say it's more akin to a philosopher king hence less anarchy and more monarchy. It's all good until the king dies and let's see who succeeds them.
It will be most telling when Linus dies.
No, a king's power derives from authority, not from the good will of its subjects
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But a king must have power and authority, Linus just has influence and labor, thus expertise.
You can fork it, sure Linus is very respected and his decisions are considered very important but you can fork it and change however you want so it's still compatible with Anarchism.
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sudo apt install anarchism is a real command in Debian.
Cory Doctorow has a book, "Walkaway" that is basically exploring the politics of FOSS on a societal scale. It's pretty nerdy obv but I enjoyed it and it doesn't overly glamourize any political system the way you'd typically see in political fiction.
There's a book called Opt-Out from Rory Price about a future where humanity starts using AR more and more to the point that it's almost obligatory to have a device of this kind for everything, even as ID. It then talks about a group that develops a free/libre version of this device's OS and they have to decide about personal issues or try to maintain their views. It's entertaining and not too long, but I think it shows a very possible future.
I haven't heard from its author in some time, but I think they discovered they were someone else too ;), that's why I love this book.
I mean...yeah
Idk, technically voluntary association is a key tenet of volunteerism/anarcho-capitalism, so if we're just using volunteering as the basis we might as well say it's volunteerism. I think anarcho-communism and anarcho-capitalism are a bit more nuanced than "sharing."
Anarcho-capitalism is a contradictory term that is mostly used to imagine neofeudalism.
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Anarcho-Capitalism isn't a thing, it's just Libertarian Capitalists LARPing with Leftist aesthetics. The very rejection of individual ownership rejects Capitalism, it's like saying Worker Co-operatives are an example of Capitalism because markets tend to not care what makes them up.
Just because FOSS would be "allowed" in Capitalism doesn't mean it's an example of Capitalist principles.
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a capitalist funded anarcho-comunist ecosystem, ironic
There are still laws and it has stability so no it's not
Anarchy means no rulers. No hierarchy. There would still be rules/laws.
Anarchy isn't a rejection of structure, but a complex web of horizontal structures.
Commenting with no clue what people are talking about
It's actually a really good analogy, because it can only run on fully-capitalist hardware.
This not the dunk you think
What is "fully-capitalist hardware?"
Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and capitalist hardware.
Fire at will, commander.
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