2014-04-21 22:35 GMT+02:00 Josh Boyer <jwboyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
I think the problem I have with this well-intentioned thread is that
it's a broad reaction to a specific issue we're trying to sort out
right now. Webapps aren't new, the fact that a large portion of them
aren't FOSS isn't new, and their usage in and interoperability with
Fedora is not new.
Oh no, all of this is actually new.
The change was so smooth and gradual that now, looking back, we see it as inevitable and natural; but compared to the 1995/2000-time era, it has been a drastic change.
In the old days, everything was a local application, and networks existed but weren't all that convenient or useful[1]; so, having all local applications FOSS meant "full freedom" and "full control".
Nowadays, for non-specialist "desktop" users, almost everything is a web app; besides the browser, only specialists use local applications (Photoshop, Eclipse, Maya, whatever)[2]. Having all local applications FOSS no longer makes that much of a difference, most of the software being executed is proprietary, or even if not proprietary, hosted elsewhere and therefore not under full control.
If we take "FOSS" as a means to achieve some benefits (freedom from lock-in, privacy, control) and not a goal in itself, the situation has changed to such an extent that FOSS is not even close to giving the average desktop user the expected benefits.
Over the past 10 years, even those of us only installing FOSS have ended up running an enormous amount of proprietary software. That's, in retrospect, a completely unintuitive, unexpected and undesired result[3], and keeping exactly the same means to achieve the desired benefits (again, freedom from lock-in, privacy, control) seems like sheer folly to me.
(Unfortunately, I don't know what should be the replacement. We can of course just keep the same foundations/means and just stop expecting the benefits, but that's kind of pointless.)
Mirek
[1] Even in those times, email was tremendously useful, sure, but it was still a fairly extraordinary thing to use among an exclusive group of people.
[2] There still are local email clients and photo management programs... but even those now have web-based competition.
[3] Or, well, perhaps this was all foreseeable and foreseen, and everyone just choose to ignore it... in which case I'm not sure that the Foundations or anything else matters all that much.
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