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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: November 11th, 2023

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  • constate368@lemmy.worldtoLinux@lemmy.mlSell Me on Linux
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    1 year ago

    It’s about being in the free software ecosystem, which is really a licensing issue.

    Forcing people to contribute their modifications to software when they are editing free software ensures we’re never dependent on the decisions of one entity. This is what the GNU General Public License (GPL) is all about.

    If we don’t like what someone did, we can take that part out and redistribute a better version that we can continue to modify. This might not matter to someone who doesn’t program, but it should.

    You don’t have to be the one to get your hands dirty with code. Just being a user in the ecosystem opens you up to these benefits. Other people are going to take advantage of them, and you can just piggyback on their work.

    I, personally, think it’s always just a matter of time before businesses make products worse by charging more/giving less. Look at Adobe. Look at Microsoft. Look at Apple. All of them want to lock people into endless subscriptions because they’re dependent on their ecosystem. What happens when Adobe decides they’re not charging enough for photoshop? They charge more, and everyone just has to deal with it. Same goes for Office. Same goes for Apple, they just do it the old-fashioned way by charging for the latest versions and making you buy new hardware.