Free/open source

I think the start of free and open-source software was really about people wanting to share and improve software together. People like Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds were vital in making this happen. I think its interesting that both are controversial figures to some extent. Linus is not as controversial as Richard Stallman, but I think these two figures show the dichotomy of the open source community. It shows that anyone of any background can contribute and be impactful to open source. Granted, the two are essentially geniuses in computer science and programming. They were therefore impactful in showing that software could be free for everyone to use and change. I really respect how their work started a big community of people who help each other make better software. To me, the heart of free and open-source software is about sharing and working together. There are lots of people who’ve helped make this idea a reality, and it’s their teamwork that makes free and open-source software so special.

My Group Progress

Me and my group have made significant progress in that we found a project that we all wanted to work on. We picked open food facts as our project because we wanted to contribute to something that would be for a good cause. I initially wanted to work on something like MongoDB, but I found out that they only claim to be Open Source, and they are not truly open source. It enrages me because it feels like they are putting on a masquerade in tricking open source developers to contribute to software that will be licensed and commercialized. I don’t believe the point of open source development is free labor for a company.