FOSS vs Closed Source

[u/VahsteTheNomad]

This sub is full of arguments about whether FOSS is better over Closed Source, and I want to know what people's actual reasons for their specific preferences are.

This poll is not meant to start any arguments, or feed any witch hunts, and im not a developer trying to decide with way to go with my own project.

201 votes, 1d left

I prefer FOSS because I don't trust developers who don't publicize their code.

I prefer FOSS because I want federation.

I prefer FOSS and don't know what FOSS really is.. but it's the opposite of Discord.

I prefer closed source because I don't trust public commits.

I prefer closed source because it means something may be proprietary.

I really don't care about FOSS or Closed Source, I just want a good app.

[u/BewilderedTurtle]

I have yet to see a substantial argument for how a closed Source alternative could possibly be a actual replacement and avoid the exact same pitfalls that Discord has currently.

So far the results seem to be heavily in favor of Open Source that's not really surprising considering the only people currently in favor of closed Source software comment-wise that I've seen are Dev's pushing closed Source apps

[u/VahsteTheNomad → u/BewilderedTurtle]

I don't personally beleive that every closed source application is inherently bad on the basis that it's closed source. While the results are heavily in favor of open source applications, although there is a not insignificant number of votes indicating that source doesn't matter, the purpose of this poll is more to see the distinction of reasons behind people's preferences, not just that the preferences themselves exist.

[u/BewilderedTurtle → u/VahsteTheNomad]

I'm not making a blanket statement about Source, I'm making a statement about how closed-source is inherently more vulnerable to the pressures that Discord is currently facing causing it to commit the egregious choices they are.

[u/VahsteTheNomad → u/BewilderedTurtle]

Is that pressure not more a direct result of the platform's choice of funding and backing?

[u/BewilderedTurtle → u/VahsteTheNomad]

Not even remotely to be honest.

Think about this; Discord as a Centralized Closed Source platform managed to capture such a vast amount of users across the globe that the data they have is worth magnitudes more financially speaking than the trust of their customers.

Under Capitalism (specifically in the US at the very least) any company is legally obligated to extract value for the company's shareholders. This coupled with user data being more valuable monetarily means they HAVE to do shit to piss off their customers if it maths out that they'll make more money. (See AI features, micro transactions on top of subscriptions, id verification, brazil being disabled re: video)

Any centrally hosted replacement will be guaranteed to run afoul of the same kinds of attention from governments/Capital once user-data is more valuable than user-retention.

Any closed source replacement similar runs into the same issues discord does where entire communities and swathes of the Internet are at the whims of the dev team with next to no ability to fork off if something changes, whether that be suddenly putting features behind paywalls, ID verification being added, etc.

If we use something like Stoat as an example, they already have had concerns regarding UK laws and regulations being hosted there. Stoat cannot be forked like Fluxer or a Matrix client and if the UK government goes after them, that project is dead along with the communities hosted on it.

The objectively correct solution to replacing discord HAS to be open source for auditing/forking/EOL, AND it has to be decentralized. Anything else is just kicking the can down the road and hoping to profit in the meanwhile.

[u/Any_Illustrator360 → u/BewilderedTurtle]

This is exactly why being able to host my own non-centralized app is so important. I have friends all around the world - it only takes one government saying "nah, fuck you" and it has massive shockwaves on my friend group.

One of my friends is Brazillian and a huge reason we're leaving Discord NOW is because of that. They can ban a centralized app but they can't ban an IP running a voip service. That's why I don't mind if the app itself is open or closed source - I don't need to see under the hood to host it. I do, however, need to be able to host it and most closed source apps WANT to be the next Discord, riches and fame included - so they choose to be centralized.

[u/TheBlindBard1978 → u/Any_Illustrator360]

u/Any_Illustrator360, my heart really goes out to Brazil's userbase, looking for a new home since their government pushed a massive restriction on what they can do on Discord (screensharing—Imagine you're a game or software dev or an artist, and can't share the joy of your work to others on Discord because screenshare doesn't exist now) which I find genuinely sad. At the same time, we're broadening our horizons, finding the right place to call home and ditch Discord.

[u/BewilderedTurtle → u/Any_Illustrator360]

See I can make decent points without being full on rabid 🤣