(Repost of <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38570370>)
(Repost of <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38570370>)
I have no problem criticizing tech companies, but I try to wait until they behave badly.
I suppose if you follow that thread though a lot of businesses just shouldn't exist except for fulfilling the need they fill for the sake of those in need.
In fact, I prefer that capitalist model at this point having seen countless OSS/nonprofit efforts turn into glorified abandonware.
At least the business has an interest in remaining a going concern and maintaining the stack.
This is the Cloudflare problem all over again. One day Matthew Prince will get hit by a bus, all the "trustworthy people" will leave, a PE firm will take the company private, and merge it with an ad network. Congrats, the entire internet now has a single companies ads all over it and we let it happen because we happened to like the people fucking us.
That's why people don't necessarily, and shouldn't, trust that Tailscale won't head down the same path. It's hard enough for non-profits - heck, the Mozilla Foundation is losing all the good will they've ever had, and even the Raspberry Pi Foundation decided to gaslight people when they started eyeing corporate money.
If there's an open source way to do a thing that's a pain in the ass and a way to do the same thing from a for-profit company, I'll take the pain in the ass thing every time. History has shown it to be the prudent thing time and time again.
I have a SaaS-crush on buf because they did such a good job on fixing such an annoying problem.