its interesting that all software that used to be handy and cool eventually becomes some kinda awful dystopian hell-program after about 5-10 years. like remember that website where if you were setting up a new PC you could go on there and select which applications you wanted and it would download them all in a big zip file. i bet it downloads malware onto your computer by now

remember when every 12 months there'd be a new popular torrent client and everyone would be saying "oh no, get that one, that's the new cool good one, not only is it leaner and faster, it'll never screw your over" and 12 months later a new update would come out for it which would add a bunch of ads and toolbars and start spying on you. and then someone would point you to a newer torrent client and say "oh no, get that one, that's the new cool good one, not only is it leaner and faster, it'll n--

@jk
That's a thing about Free Software, see. It has no frustrations associated with the capitalism and profit motive, it's just software, you take it, you use it for whatever, no strings attached.

The only frustration about it is that it's mostly severely underdeveloped, because everyone is busy doing bullshit software, because that's where money is, and if you are not where the money is, you end up poor and homeless and sick.

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@drq @jk there's money elsewhere? Like Blender Foundation + Blender Institute funds full-time engineers and artists. Given how much FOSS I use at work, I expect there are plenty of opportunities for FOSS projects to capture more of the value they generate - most won't make the effort or don't have the know-how.

@2ck unfortunately, "high-budget" FOSS projects are the exception rather than the rule. And that's small potatos compared to what giants like Adobe or Autodesk are raking in.

How much FOSS you use at your job is literally irrelevant to how much funds the FOSS projects are getting. Which is kind of the point. And then again, you don't get billions of dollars by giving away your software for free or at least letting others do the same. And once you stop doing that, you are not much of a "free" software any longer, are you.

We clearly do have both human and monetary resources problem.

@jk

@drq @jk yeah, that there's no relationship between the value FOSS creates and the value received by the devs who work on them is my point. they're independent and there's work to do to capture that value. my first thought is consulting and contracting with commercial companies to add features.

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