I admit. I am disappointed with many people on my timeline who take the #xz backdoor as “we are doomed” when instead it shows the power of Open as someone working on something completely unrelated decided to investigate something out of curiosity, shared his findings and in less than 24 hours the backdoor was confirmed, contained, solved, fixed before it became a real problem. A huge success, IMHO. But some of you folks just want to see the world burn, I guess?
I will start to look at other places to find people that share my optimism. I don’t want to feel the need to defend it. I think making things better is why we exist. The internet doesn’t help with that anymore. So I’ll do my thang in real life and let the internet do their thing of demotivating everyone and everything. #Goodnight and virtual hugs!
As we at #RedHat made very clear, no versions of RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) were affected by the #xz backdoor. My two production servers run on RHEL. So I am relaxed. #Goodnight (and before you complain: you can get RHEL for free for up to 16 machines with the developer subscription for individuals)
"Keynes wrote that the problem of economics is to reconcile economic efficiency, social justice, and individual liberty. We are good at the first, and the libertarian streak in economics constantly pushes the last, but social justice can be an afterthought" A Noble Laureate in economics comes to terms. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2024/03/Symposium-Rethinking-Economics-Angus-Deaton
If you conclude from this that I am Keynesian and not Chicago school when it comes to economics, you are damn right. And I urge you to take your time and read up on Keynesian theory. On Bancor. #Goodnight
VC funded company changes from open source license to proprietary (and yes, source-available licenses with field of use restrictions are NOT open source, ask the Open Source Initiative or your preferred lawyer). 20 forks pop up. Promising to be the new home for the community. Infighting starts. 1-2 years later a completely new VC funded open source project solves the problem when you sign their CLA (Contributory License Agreement). Rinse., repeat. #SarcasmButOnlyHalf
So if you feel like I touched a nerve, feel free to join our religion. https://www.stallmanism.com :) #GoodNight I will now go home and watch the first episode of the #3BodyProblem. For reasons :) (and yes, you will get loads of warnings about the site being not secure etc. I am working on it. This was 2009)
Oh, and if you want to learn more about what my friend learned over many years on the intersection of Open Source and commercial endeavours, his little book Social Architecture might be of interest. It's a condensed version, it is available for free if you know where to find it. You can also buy the printed version and the money will go to his wonderful kids. His name is Pieter Hintjens. #GoodNight, finally.
Going to try to fit in a shower before the late news, so I can relax and fall asleep. That might put me out before the news is over, the time I wake, will tell when I fell asleep. See you at 4:20