Oh, and on this subject: AWS is not really a threat to FOSS, if anything it’s mostly been a boon for us. Any time someone cites AWS while taking any of the four freedoms away from you, you should start asking some pointed questions.
Lol… I’d say anybody saying AWS is not really a threat to FOSS has a blind spot for them or is somehow affiliated with them.
Amazon is certainly interesting for open source. They’ve caused me and my friends a fair bit of trouble but they have made some real contributions. I feel like they only do it when they have to though. They are quite happy to take others work and give nothing back.
They just feel very disingenuous. Opportunistic. A bit sleezy. But some of my favorite open source hackers work there and do good work. It’s hard.
That’s exactly it. They’re taking advantage of open source as a business decision. It’s not about the ethics, morals, or any of that touchy feely stuff to improve the world. It’s all about money for the company.
They do have many good contributions as you said, but as soon as they have to choose between expense with little benefit to them (that includes little benefit to marketing too), and abusing open source for business, it’s always the latter.
