Techrights

Brodie Robertson is Wrong Because Flatpaks & Snaps Do In Fact Promote Proprietary Software (Stallman is Right) and It's Mostly Foolish

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 19, 2023

Video: Stallman's Bizarre Take On Flatpaks & Snaps (cropped 1:45 - 4:42 from the original, which is almost 15 minutes in length)

This new video from one hour ago demands a quick response.

THE video in question is very new and very wrong. The short story is, Richard Stallman insists that with Free software people also have the freedom to install proprietary software if so they wish, albeit it is not desirable (if the goal is software freedom). Stallman is also correct about distro repositories compared to, say, Flatpaks and Flathub. We've repeatedly seen this and covered this as recently as this year. Hours ago we wrote about "FOSS" sites promoting proprietary software and even Microsoft/Windows. It's easy to see why IBM and other "Linux" companies (that work for/with Microsoft) want to "cancel" Stallman; it's not about his non-tech worldview and opinions. It's about his opinions on software. Unlike Microsoft, Stallman is not their "business partner".

The vlogger Brodie Robertson seems to be barking up the wrong tree, painting software freedom as an obstruction rather than the goal. If software freedom does not matter at all, you might as well buy some Apple things and be remotely controlled via "apps" with back doors. What would be accomplished? █