I'm using FOSS but I'd still consider myself a casual user. It seems like most FOSS I've seen is a free, buggy, alternative to mainstream software, which resolves a problem the user had.

From my perspective, (and do correct me if I'm wrong) FOSS doesnt seem sustainable. Everyone can contribute, but how do they make a living? My guess is they do other things for income. And what about the few contributors who do 90% of the work?

What if every software became FOSS? Who would put in the free labor to write the software to print a page, or show an image on screen, or create something more complex like a machine learning advanced AI software?

Would it simply be that everyone provides for each other? Everyone pitches in? What about people who have bills to pay? Would their bills be covered?

This concludes my right-before-bed psychology inquiry.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] filister@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Freedom and privacy. Usually all this free software is providing you a lot more privacy compared to its commercial alternatives, which all require some sort of registration and data collection.

And you would be really surprised how much those commercial solutions rely on FOSS software.

I can only tell you that humanity wouldn't be so technologically advanced if free software didn't exist.