{"id":26996,"date":"2019-10-21T15:54:43","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T19:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=26996"},"modified":"2019-10-21T15:54:43","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T19:54:43","slug":"fsf-missed-the-cloud-and-mobile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/21\/fsf-missed-the-cloud-and-mobile\/","title":{"rendered":"FSF Missed the Cloud and Mobile"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stefano Maffulli<\/a> (via Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

The point that everybody misses is that Stallman’s views on software don’t matter anymore. The FSF should have nurtured and grown new leaders a long time ago, leaders who looked into the future, understand cloud and mobile computing and their threats to a free society.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

I had the first inkling that the Free Software Foundation and the free software movement was heading to for a crash when the GPLv3 was being drafted in 2005. At the time, I was leading the Italian chapter of Free Software Foundation Europe and it was clear to me that RMS didn’t have a grasp of where the industry was going. He was laser focused on closing the embedded device loophole, preventing what he called the TiVoization<\/a> of free software. All around him, not a single voice could argue strongly enough about the Google issue that later would become the *-as-a-service loophole and cloud issue.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Right after the GPLv3 came out, Google was relieved they could continue doing business as usual, Linux kept its license and the FSF waged war against Debian<\/a> and Mozilla<\/a>. Stallman led the FSF out of the most important focus for the future because he wanted a pure free software operating system for his laptop? Definitely feels that way: he wanted zero binary blobs<\/a> in device drivers, zero non-free Javascript<\/a>. His dream of a pure operating system<\/a> was there, almost close enough to touch. Meanwhile, the concept of computers evolved to include mobile phones and cloud. And those are just evil<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Much has been written lately about Richard Stallman the person<\/a>, but what of his movement? I’m not sure whether it’s anyone’s fault, or what could have been done differently, but it definitely feels like the moment has passed. His concerns may be more relevant than ever, but the world has changed so that the avenues to address them seem increasingly futile. Open-source software is more widely used, but platforms and services are increasingly locked down. Free software didn’t bring the expected freedom.<\/p>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n