[HN Gopher] John Carmack: Be an Open Source Absolutist
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John Carmack: Be an Open Source Absolutist
Author : hardmaru
Score : 63 points
Date : 2023-10-10 13:44 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (twitter.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
| keikobadthebad wrote:
| Maybe not a great choice to tell this on closed source,
| politically captured twitter.
| royjacobs wrote:
| Would you rather he posted it to an open-source platform where
| everyone already agrees with him?
| [deleted]
| Darmody wrote:
| Would you rather post it on a social network that nobody uses
| in a video format that lacks quality like Stallman does?
|
| Anyway, maybe I'm getting this wrong but I don't think he's
| saying that everything has to be 100% open source. He's talking
| about the tools we need to build everything, that backbone of
| the software.
| renegade-otter wrote:
| Why, is HN open-sourced? Is Reddit? I don't get this argument.
| The whole point is that we don't have to spin up our own open-
| sourced blog and host it ourselves just to post an opinion on
| the Internet anymore.
| SkyMarshal wrote:
| Twitter open sources some things [1], but they're not really
| doing anything groundbreaking or making any real advances in
| software. Even if they were to open source 100% of their tech,
| it wouldn't move the needle much.
|
| [1]:https://github.com/twitter
| babyeater9000 wrote:
| I think that Carmack is really savvy. He is being effective in
| his messaging by using a popular platform. I almost got
| offended because he didn't say free software but he straight up
| listed the four freedoms. And Doom got open sourced so he lives
| it. I think Carmack is on the side of right; there are no true
| Scotsmen.
| Program_Error wrote:
| I remember him being very pro Windows. If so then this is a
| welcome change of spirit. I hope he is daily driving a Linux
| system at home and I hope everyone else here does as well.
| archontes wrote:
| Now is the time to daily drive linux with a Windows VM for the
| few moments it's needed.
| tredre3 wrote:
| He was very pro Windows because Windows' development tools are
| simply much better (yeah yeah I know your pimped emacs with a
| stack of 25 scripts/plugins to interface with gdb is so much
| more productive than Visual Studio's debugger, bravo...).
|
| It wasn't the sort of anti-linux sentiment that you're
| implying.
| PH95VuimJjqBqy wrote:
| I would say the pimped out emacs is probably better than
| everything _except_ visual studio.
|
| VS is hands down the best IDE in the world, bar none. And I
| say this as someone who runs linux on everything except my
| gaming pc and my work laptop.
|
| Once you step outside of visual studio though ... nothing
| compares with those setups (I use vim, but the sentiment is
| the same). It's because you have easy access to the entire
| OS, not anything specific to vim/emacs (although there's a
| lot of great things to say about them too).
| renegade-otter wrote:
| Also, he was a game developer - which is heavily lopsided
| towards Windows. Shocking, I know.
| cherryteastain wrote:
| Dependency management for any C/C++ project in Windows sucks
| compared to Linux. If you really want a Microsoft IDE, VS
| Code runs natively on Linux and has all the debugging
| capabilities of VS.
| cmiller1 wrote:
| More so than just using closed source software, since Bill
| Gates' Open Letter To Hobbyists in 1976 Microsoft has been the
| biggest opponent to the sharing of software in the world. If
| you care about open source do not give them a dime.
| gwern wrote:
| How much open source neural network code or models or research
| has John Carmack's Keen Technologies (>1y, +$20m raised)
| released?
| sashimimono wrote:
| Please correct me if I am wrong here, but did he take this
| position also when meta made occulus as closed as possible?
| Running any opensource stuff on it? Connecting it to an free
| operating system? You could not even buy one here, at least not
| without selling your personal data.
|
| I have a unpleasant feeling that this well intended talk is only
| a move to protect his future work and foremost business.
|
| (but I do hope that I am wrong)
| paulddraper wrote:
| Nearly no one has actually read his post.
|
| His point is _allow_ open source not _only use_ open source.
|
| "Be a Free Speech Absolutist".
|
| > Open Source AI is in many people's crosshairs today. They
| believe that giving free access to state of the art algorithms
| and models without any guardrails constitutes a danger to
| society, that the public can't be entrusted...
|
| > In the spirit of the first amendment, congress should make no
| law abridging the freedom to release open source software.
|
| I.e. Stop AI from becoming the modern version of prohibited
| encryption. [1]
|
| [1]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_from_th...
| SkyMarshal wrote:
| I seem to recall he wasn't happy about it, but don't recall
| where he said that or what the details were. Could be wrong,
| wasn't paying that close attention. He also left after a while
| without immediately moving on to something else, so it seems he
| was unhappy about something there.
| dartharva wrote:
| He is not anti-proprietary, he is just criticising the arguably
| moronic notion that open-source AI tools need to be banned or
| regulated just because they are "too dangerous" in public
| hands. That's all the argument is about.
| reducesuffering wrote:
| Open source kamikaze drones? Open source house location finder
| via twitter handle?
| nitwit005 wrote:
| Having the kamikaze drones be closed source just means you have
| to pay someone a licensing fee before you blow your enemies up.
|
| Similarly, you'd presumably just be paying for access to that
| Twitter personal data mapping.
| orangepanda wrote:
| On the otherhand, open source anti-kamikaze drones?
| lelandfe wrote:
| I sure hope the maintainer works on my issue soon
| saidinesh5 wrote:
| For better or for worse, most of the code running on kamikaze
| drones these days is open source. Radio Control link, flight
| control software, ESC firmware.. a lot of it is open source
| hardware too.
|
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WpCPdMzQoYE
| dartharva wrote:
| Why not? In fact weaponizable software should be the first
| thing to be open-sourced so that everyone studies them and
| adopts countermeasures, instead of them being a secret privy
| only to shady parties.
| reducesuffering wrote:
| Is that why the world is trying to nix nuclear weapons
| proliferation?
| archontes wrote:
| I, for one, am extremely for open source kamikaze drones.
| afandian wrote:
| > In the spirit of the first amendment, congress should make no
| law abridging the freedom to release open source software.
|
| This is an odd twist at the end. What's it referencing?
| paulddraper wrote:
| It's not referencing anything, other than the first amendment.
|
| I.e. saying that source code is protected speech.
| ohthatsnotright wrote:
| Musk and his "free speech absolutist" quip, the First Amendment
| to the US Constitution says,
|
| "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
| religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
| abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right
| of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
| Government for a redress of grievances."
| infamouscow wrote:
| Just because you have nothing interesting or valuable to say,
| doesn't mean everyone is like you.
| SkyMarshal wrote:
| He's referencing the 90s crypto wars which he covered earlier
| in his comment. The cryptographers won that round when DJB won
| his lawsuit vs the US govt that resulted in software being
| considered speech:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_J._Bernstein#Bernstein_...
| gentleman11 wrote:
| Speaking of which, doom being released as free software has led,
| indirectly, to this being nanoWADmo, national wad creating month,
| where people make doom maps. The community is thriving all these
| years later, you should see modern doom mega wads by people like
| skillsaw. There are hundreds of these projects
| justinclift wrote:
| https://nitter.net/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1711737838889242880
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(page generated 2023-10-10 23:01 UTC)