this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
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I do criticize those things, my goal is to get as many people using free software as possible, valves work with steam has enabled that, also, you say the goal is to get as many people to use free software as possible while saying the goal isn't number of users, that's a contradiction.
i don't have a problem criticizing steam for being proprietary, I just recognize that steam is massively beneficial to FOSS and from a pragmatic standpoint they are nothing like and will never become nearly as big of a problem as windows
My goal isn't to increase the number of GNU/Linux users at all cost. I see very little benefit from people using GNU/Linux if they will use proprietary software on it, unless it's only a temporary solution for them. If people stop using one proprietary platform only to be trapped in another without realizing it, then something went wrong. Some people ditch Android only to use SailfishOS. Or they ditch Twitter only to use Threads. So I hope those new GNU/Linux users who know nothing about the Free Software movement don't get trapped again.
Steam is an unethical DRM platform, so I will always criticize it regardless if it makes people switch to GNU/Linux.
You're still not listening to me, or yourself, really.
Neither is mine, the cost is extremely minor in this case, because steam is a gaming client, and the fundamental nature of a gaming client is non-essential and not integrated into the system deeply at all. What you fail to understand is people being on windows is way worse in every single way than them having one proprietary app on their computer.
There's no situation where one more person switching to steamos isn't switching from windows where they were also using steam, this means every single person that steam converts is a massive net positive. Do you see how that is not "at all costs" at all?
There is huge benefit, more people are using much more FOSS, and the fact is, if more people were on linux, there'd be more foss software, which means better alternatives and outcompeting proprietary software.
Steam ain't that. It's video games. And nothing else.
Steam isn't going to be what "traps" them or anything, especially when it's sandboxed, and when you sandbox it, it has literally no integration with the rest of your system at all. This is a massive win over using windows. Which anybody who is switching to steamos is certainly already on and wouldn't switch to linux without it under any circumstances.
You could use this excuse to justify almost any type of proprietary software. Most apps are not deeply integrated into the system. That doesn't make them ethical.
It is more free than Windows and I never said otherwise. I just said that it was still unethical.
But those people don't care about their freedom. That's the problem. They will always use proprietary software, because they only care about convenience or features. We need to change that. Only then our movement will benefit from this. We can't let them get attached to Valve as long as they make proprietary software.
Games are software. If you can't control what they do on your device, then you don't control the device.
You are assuming that a company that makes proprietary software won't try to get more power over their users. Why wouldn't they? Their users don't even care. Sandboxing improves your security (which is good), but not your freedom. You still can't see what the software does or change it, so that program is still unethical.
I'm using that excuse to justify steamos vs windows, you're assuming a vacuum, I do believe proprietary software is bad, just that you're fighting the wrong battle.
"I see very little benefit from people using GNU/Linux if they will use proprietary software on it"
"It doesn’t matter how many nonfree packages it has, because even one package makes the whole thing proprietary."
The entire time my point has been steamos isn't worth criticising because it's just archlinux with steam, criticize steam. I'm totally fine with criticising steam, i'm not fine with criticising steamos, because it is literally just linux but with steam preinstalled. All of your issues are simply issues with steam, not steamos.
That won't change, they simply do not have the same values as you, so, be pragmatic and try to make FOSS software outcompete proprietary software, in this case, we need steam, we need people to move to linux as much as possible, and only once we have everyone on FOSS operating systems, THEN we attack the clients, that should be the order of operations. Steam is absolutely still bad because it's proprietary but steamos is a good thing for the free software movement.
I'm not saying they wouldn't, i'm saying they've structured things in a way that they literally cannot, there's no path to do that for them, that's why if they wanted to do that they would've HAD to use BSD, there is no choice for them in the matter because this is based on linux.
Here is an article from the FSF explaining why we should avoid making such compromises: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/compromise.html . They probably explain this a lot better than me, so if it doesn't convince you, then probably nothing will.