Rev. Roger BW 😷 on Nostr: A thing I noticed very early in my free software journey, which has only become more ...
A thing I noticed very early in my free software journey, which has only become more true since:
When I have a problem getting the computer to do a thing I want it to, there are several possible reasons. I haven't worked out the right way of doing it, nobody thought of that before, it's too difficult, and so on. The one I met all the time in the commercial world, and don't ever meet in free, is that someone has put an artificial restriction on the program's capabilities because they want me to pay to do it or because they don't want me to do it at all. Simply knowing that I will not run up against a tollbooth or a gated community wall is desperately freeing and makes the exploration worth doing in the first place.
When I have a problem getting the computer to do a thing I want it to, there are several possible reasons. I haven't worked out the right way of doing it, nobody thought of that before, it's too difficult, and so on. The one I met all the time in the commercial world, and don't ever meet in free, is that someone has put an artificial restriction on the program's capabilities because they want me to pay to do it or because they don't want me to do it at all. Simply knowing that I will not run up against a tollbooth or a gated community wall is desperately freeing and makes the exploration worth doing in the first place.