this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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Linux runs on something like 90% of corporate servers. Amazon's AWS runs its own version of Linux and is the largest cloud provider in existence.
This means, by and large, the labor done on a volunteer basis by random internet nerds to create Linux and all its tools has unintentionally been the largest transfer of wealth created by labor from the working class to the corporate class in fucking history.
FOSS means anyone can use it for any reason. Including organizations you reasonably fucking hate using it for reasons you fucking hate.
It's literally why in the last few years you had maintainers of open source projects sabotaging their own projects when learning what it is being used for, or trying to make "new rules" that don't allow certain organizations to use their code (pro-tip, if they can access your code, they can use it).
Only now is the FOSS community waking up to the fact that corporations are using their open ideals to profit off of their labor very handsomely.
If there's one thing that capitalism is excellent at, it's taking valid critiques of capitalism, and then repackaging those critique and selling them back to the very public that is critiquing them. There's a reason Meta has already jumped in on ActivityPub, because its a new market to exploit.
The early internet was nothing but counterculture and lack of corporations. Corporations showed up because it was a new market to exploit and they used their largess to dominate the conversation. It happened before, it will happen again.
Depressing, but I can't disagree.
Fully agree with all of that. The difference I see with ActivityPub is that we can say they can use it all they want but we won't be connecting with them or interacting with their users at all.
And they honestly probably won't care, but it makes it clear where the rest of us stand and communicates to current Fediverse users a commitment to stay as free as possible from corporate influence. I felt like there was no room for milquetoast answers to that question.