Remaining human

It’s easy to forget that FOSS-developers (which includes me) are humans too. The sad thing with doing this FOSS-politics thing I’m talking about is that… It’s easy to lose yourself. When trying to push for democracy, you might find yourself a “political martyr” or just a coder and not human. “How do I, a coder, remain human?”

What is humanity?

Humanity is basically having a soul, a personality! It’s the thing we don’t want to lose. A soul is – if you’re an atheist like me – just hormonal reactions in the body, but in this chapter we’re talking about the philosophical definition: Basically just an arbitrary thing that exists and makes you feel things.

Preserving humanity

You are not a robot. You are human, and you should do your best to stay that way. But how? Mental health advice time! “In a manifesto?”, I hear you ask. Yes! To follow my ideas it’s important to have a life to follow them in.

Have a life

Do other things. Don’t just sit and program. Do other stuff, like… Read a book or maybe go out and have a walk! Enjoy life, and then you can enjoy the benefits of my ideas!

Also… Program other stuff

You’re a programmer! Program! The politics can wait for later, especially if you… Don’t have a project? Don’t be a politics machine, be a programming one!

Recreational activities

Meditate and eat healthy food, be healthy, have a life! Especially read, it’s a very calming activity that helps you with mental health.

Consequences of not

“Why? Why should I care?”, I can predict you asked. Well, depression is a real thing. Not having a life and participating in recreational activities can quickly spiral into depression which… Isn’t good? “I have spiraling depression!” is not something you want to say. Live a life and live it to the fullest.

Corporatization

For the love of god, do not corporatize your project and especially don’t corporatize yourself! I brought this up in “Code of conduct”, but do not corporatize your project! I brought up a commit I made on one of my projects which I believe said

A few weeks ago I saw some community standards on how to make a [Github] repo. I, eagerly waiting for something to do, added these in with delight. Now, looking back, I realize that the community standards were utter and complete bullshit and that you should never follow them. I think it also gave of a corporatized “squeaky clean” look. For example with the “CODE OF CONDUCT”. Like, what the fuck? I am a firm believer that software should not be corporatized, and this just felt wrong. Also, if you need a document to tell you what you can and can’t do; I don’t want your [contribution]. Isn’t it like implied that you shouldn’t be racist, sexist and homophobic? Who thinks “Hmm… I wonder if I can say something bad about gay people here. Let’s check the code of conduct! Then I’ll know if I can be an anti-gay womanizer [nazi]!”!? If anyone reading this needs an arbitrary paper to tell you what to do; get out.

If we ruthlessly corporatize FOSS, we’re almost as bad as the dirty capitalists that try the same thing (though they want to steal our projects)! Some good examples of corporatized FOSS-projects are

You should try to avoid these projects, with one exception: Godot. Unity and Unreal-engine are much worse alternatives and even if Godot is greedy, the others are more greedy.

The Redhat massacre

Redhat is a greedy and disgusting company trying to exploit FOSS to generate money. On their website, opensource.com they refer to FOSS as an “emerging market”. They refer to FOSS as just another venture to them, just like I said in “Venture capitalism”. They slowly massacre small FOSS projects in order to take their place. Boycott Redhat for a better future. Also, Redhat says we must treat them with respect:

Most importantly, the FOSS community must try to be patient, non-judgmental, and empathetic when businesses inevitably stumble.

WHAT!? WE!? We need to be “empathetic” and “patient” when the businesses we hate fail! Here’s another excerpt that just confirms my point:

While those of us on the management and business side of things learn how we enter the emerging market of FOSS, there’s no reason FOSS communities, projects, and supporters can’t do a little to help out our end. /…/ The FOSS community can do its part to help a business do this, perhaps even by reaching out and offering to teach them.

So please. Remain human. Don’t be greedy. I’d like to end this chapter with the most greedy excerpt of the post:

Assisting businesses to enter the FOSS emerging market and picking them up should they fall will go a long way toward dispelling these misconceptions and we will all reap the benefits of broadening the scope of our collaborations.

Next chapter: Redhat and Oracle