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24 pointsgnomax8 comments

Imagine every scientist started to acknowledge in their papers all the free software tools they used for their research. In my field it has become more common to cite R packages in papers, but we could go further and give a shout out to the whole FOSS community who provide the infrastructure for computing. Much research would simply not be possible without people dedicating their careers and free time to developing free software.

Starting with TeX?

TeX is not under an free software license.

Donald Knuth has indicated several times that the source code of TeX has been placed into the "public domain", and he strongly encourages modifications or experimentations with this source code.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX#License

I think scientific progress was not a main concern of Stallman, but definitely something he foresaw as a side effect of liberating things. He often goes back to that printer driver story, but it is an anecdote of the past. His idea is about ethics though, which means that usefulness is a secondary aspect. I think he is aware of the importance of Free Software for science.

I find it quite sad, when some bright mind gets some research done, but is so unaware and so uninformed about the things, whIch actually made their research possible in the first place and does not give appropriate mention to Free Software. It makes me feel like: "Yes yes, you are great and all, but without these tools open and free to everyone, you would probably have accomplished none of that."

So I wish more people got behind Free Software and behind humanity's progress, in social matters as well as technological matters. Perhaps take a short time a few days each week To try to contribute or create simething free. Also good if it is learning resources, a free book for learning something in your area of expertise, comments and explanations for going through a book,anything really, and release it in libre terms.

What about the computing hardware, electricity, running water, mechanized farming, even antibiotics that prevent childhood deaths? The list is long.

Always have a moment's pause to think of all the infrastructure, money and quality of life propped up by the unpaid work of obscure volunteers who answer to no one but their own good will. It's funny and in a way humbling how so many things in the world are run like that.

Note, GPL licensing is in decline (see https://resources.whitesourcesoftware.com/blog-whitesource/t...) and has dropped to third of open source licenses in market share. If this continues expect the dominant tools of the future to be under more permissive licenses, as they were in the distant past; remember, permissive open source licensing predates the FSF.

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