I agree that a large number of superficial readings won't find issues
that fewer, more careful investigations could - whether "free as in
freedom" software is more reliable, efficient and capable than
proprietary software (or visa versa) is an unanswered question.
And theFSF does seem to hold a worldview that classifies distributing
non-free software as a human rights violation, so unreliable, slow and
incomplete free software is better than any proprietary software. It's
not a worldview I share (nor would I describe it as utopian) but it's
consistent.
On the other hand, the world of computing would be vastly different
without the FSF - I doubt Linux would exist (nor even the notion of open
source software) without GNU.
And I have to say I use GNU, Linux, and other open source software over
"proprietary" software because it is technically superior - and I've
been watching that gap grow and grow over the years.
On 2024-07-25 17:13, Rich Pieri wrote:
On Thu, 25 Jul 2024 15:37:27 -0400
Ian Kelling <i...@fsf.org> wrote:
FSF wrote a blog about this which I really enjoyed
https://www.fsf.org/news/lets-not-celebrate-crowdstrike-lets-point-to-a-better-way
Just two points about that, and I acknowledge my anti-FSF knee-jerk
reaction here.
First, the aphorism that, "with enough eyes, all bugs are shallow," is
demonstrably wrong. Examples include Heartbleed, Bashdoor (aka
Shellshock), Log4Shell, and the recent regesSSHion bug. Quantity is not
a substitute for quality.
Second, where the article calls out those who accuse the FSF of being
utopian, that's not an accusation. It's a description of the
leadership. To them, a free-as-in-FSF program that does not work is
superior to a proprietary program which is proven reliable. If the
free-as-in-FSF software isn't at least as good[*] as the proprietary
software it's trying to mimic or replace then it's never going to gain
significant traction.
[*] Where "good" subsumes many factors including functionality,
suitability for purpose, and vendor support.
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