[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)
 
web link (twitter.com)
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)