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Rug pulls, forks, and open-source feudalism

(lwn.net)
275 points pabs3 | 1 comments | 06 Sep 25 05:59 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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charcircuit[dead post] ◴[06 Sep 25 12:01 UTC] No.45148525[source]▶
[flagged]
acdha ◴[06 Sep 25 12:18 UTC] No.45148626[source]▶
Why are you trying to distract from the content of the article? I don’t know why her hair color is so triggering for you but she has a couple decades working in open source, multiple relevant degrees, is on the CNCF Contributor Strategy TAG, and is talking about some real issues affecting a lot of projects.

If you can’t get over her physical appearance long enough to engage with the topic, it’s healthier to leave the thread and do something else.

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charcircuit ◴[06 Sep 25 12:48 UTC] No.45148829[source]▶
I engaged with the article in another comment and did not want to be redundant so I choose a different aspect of the article to discuss which is about why LWN is focusing on "social issues" in open source and how I do not think it is something valuable for LWN to spend time on and lowers their brand.
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acdha ◴[06 Sep 25 19:24 UTC] No.45152146[source]▶
> I engaged with the article in another comment

No, you tried to quibble over terminology. Both of these comments were shallow dismissals which tried to distract from the point by focusing on surface issues.

> LWN is focusing on "social issues" in open source and how I do not think it is something valuable for LWN to spend time on and lowers their brand.

Open source is a social concept and politics has been an integral part of it since the beginning. It’s not not “lowering” LWN’s brand to talk about contributor dynamics and it certainly isn’t their job to vet their authors based on the intersection of their tonsorial choices and your personal politics rather than the substance of their articles.

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1. charcircuit ◴[06 Sep 25 23:16 UTC] No.45153792{3}[source]▶
>quibble over terminology

Terminology frames how people think about things. A rug pull sounds negative, when in reality it just means you aren't getting future work under such a permissive license. If someone is shocked from that it means that they felt entitled to the work people were doing for free. I disagree with the whole way the situation is being framed like its wrong for the people who did the work creating a project having the ability to figure out how to monetize it.

>Open source is a social concept and politics has been an integral part of it since the beginning.

But such politics are not a driving force for the Linux kernel. Linux is not open source in order to push the FSF's agenda. When there are people who focus exclusively on the social and political aspects these people are a parasite. It would be different if it was an open source developer sharing their views, but this talk purely serves to advertise an agenda the author has.

>isn’t their job to vet their authors based on the intersection of their tonsorial choices and your personal politics rather than the substance of their articles.

You are not engaging honestly. I stated up front that my issue was with the substance of the article. That picking such a talk over some other talk or topic was a mistake.