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FOSS is not American. Foss belongs to literally everyone.
I think there is a different problem. Many of the best FOSS products are unknown to the general public ;/
Lol, first time I hear that, as European😆 what a stupid movement..
I always like to say the fruits of FOSS labour are the common heritage of mankind. It belongs to all of us as a public good, created and maintained by selfless workers. (Nevermind the fact that most FOSS projects are based out of Europe anyways).
Free software is the antithesis of capitalism. It doesn't make sense to boycott them.
FOSS is definitely not boycotting capitalism, but its still an objectively good thing. I see FOSS work as a way for relatively rich imperial core citizens to give back to the world.
Definitely do not boycott FOSS projects.
I don't understand why you say FOSS isn't boycotting capitalism. I don't disagree, but I also don't know enough to agree yet.
Look at the success of Linux. It's not in opposition to capitalism, it's ba kernel widely used by capitalists. If Linux was truly a threat to capitalism, google wouldn't use it in their phones.
I still think that Linux and open source are great. They're just not neccesarily anticapitalist. They definitely can be in certain circumstances, and definitely make some rent seeking impossible
Is someone doing that? If it's FOSS it's from the internet.
I'm the most anti-American user on here and I agree.
I'd rather use USA-linked free software than Spotify.
There are some pretty corporate "open core" software companies tho, that's a more grey area
Are they open or free? That's the point here.
It's hard to say. "Open core" means that most of the software is open source (licenses vary) but some features are locked behind a paywall. Gitlab takes this approach for example, also maybe onlyoffice.
Seeing people look for corporate social media alternatives is painful.
> "Hey guys, I want to leave X, should I go to Bluesky or Threads? What? Mastodon? Never heard of that. Looks very complicated, I'll pass"
> -- CEO, founder, IT wizz on LinkedIn
Every time!
I get it as an European that it means more to me to consume "locally" and to prioritize services that are European-based. But due to the nature of computers and FOSS, borders are redefined and it is more about ideas and politics rather than physical location. However, computers and servers are also physical and submitted to legislations of countries, we cannot ignore laws such as the Patriot act and the power that the American state can have even on FOSS projects.
For me the priority is to use software that match my needs; if I have the choice between an American and an European solution, I'll tend to choose the latter one.
I canceled ongoing donations to several projects based in the US and stated that my reasons for doing so was US policy against my country. It doesn’t matter if the dev or project lead supports those policies or not, I refuse to contribute to the US economy if I can at all help it.
I understand, but I am also thinking about the dev of those projects, as an individual who (probably) really despises the current US Gov, and even though they have to engage in the US economy, as they need to eat, pay bills, etc. It is a very tricky problem for those individuals and how to emancipate from. It is like with Russia where such individuals do not endorse at all the ongoing war but still live in that system 🤔
Agree with the main point, though disagree that FOSS is "boycotting capitalism", many for-profit companies contribute to FOSS and FOSS can be used by for-profit companies too, much of today's capitalism runs on FOSS.
The point of free software is that it does not have owners, so what exactly are you "boycotting"?
Agreed.
From a purely "vote with your wallet" standpoint it doesn't make sense, because there's no money paid. However, one might worry about data/information getting in the hands of a fascist/compromised government. So I think people should judge this themselves case by case.