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Today FUTO released an application called Grayjay for Android-based mobile phones. Louis Rossmann introduced the application in a video (YouTube link). Grayjay as an application is very promising, but there is one point I take issue with: Grayjay is not an Open Source application. In the video Louis explains his reason behind the custom license, and while I do agree with his reason, I strong disagree with his method. In this post I will explain what Open Source means, how Grayjay does not meet the criteria, why this is an issue, and how it can be solved.

  • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
    131·
    1 year ago

    My issue is with the fact that FUTO wishes to have exclusive rights to monetise Grayjay. The public should have the right to vote with their wallets on who they want to maintain their software. If someone else can do a better job than FUTO, why should he not get paid? Yes, FUTO are the ones who spent money upfront to develop Grayjay in the first place, but they are also the ones from whom people will be buying at first. No one is going to pay Bob instead just because he changed the icon. But if FUTO were to drop the ball at some point in the future and Bob were to pick it up, why should Bob not be able to get paid?

    Because there are companies who would to pay no dev costs, slap their branding on something, and monetize it, but who will also use their market clout (or walled garden control) to not provide a better product, but just make buying it from the actual developers less convenient, or limit interoperability with the original product.

    We do not live in a world of conscientious consumers who will go out of their way to pay the developers who actually made something, we live in a world where whoever’s version is at the top of the app store gets the most downloads.

    No one is going to pay Bob instead just because he changed the icon.

    This is just ridiculously naive. When Bob is actually named ‘Amazon’, ‘Microsoft’, ‘Google’, etc, people will trust them more than random app developer company.

    • rglullisOPA
      3·
      1 year ago

      Go ahead and tell me one piece of FOSS which was maintained by one person and got screwed over by MS/Amazon/Google. These big companies will more likely than not just hire the dev than trying to outcompete them.

      On the flipside, tell me how many huge VC-funded companies started with “real” open source and then switched to a “source available” license after they acquired customers and favored profits over community goodwill?