Entitlement? They’ve taken everything from us, not just software either, have some empathy. All proprietary solutions will die, we have a right to build for the future and we have a right to educate about it.

I think the issue a lot of folks have is people like yourself always connecting it back to profit/salary. A large portion of us are interested in Linux/technology/foss for personal reasons and this corporate stuff not only reeks but makes enough noise to drown out better long term solutions. Yes I do it professionally too and yes I fight the good fight but we do what we need to do, this dude does not need to do this. UX really just isn’t important when we’re talking about expanding human capabilities, or I should say UX is important but pretty things aren’t. My opinion anyway but I was raised to care about this stuff by one of those wizard beards so to see your attitude is prevalent just sucks, no disrespect and nothing personal.

Ultimately I’d prefer he didn’t, as it’s reinforcing the race to the bottom you refer to above. Yes google caused it, yes we choose to participate. I am also a developer and pushed out apps without ad support in business contexts, admittedly niche, but basically a single person should not be able to monetize at this level and for just their own gain. We lose a lot compared to any short term benefit. Yes I’m talking ideals, I want people to focus more on ideals generally and less on growth and monetization.

People still sell software the traditional way, especially B2B. I don’t like your argument because it assumes someone needs to be paid, community efforts benefit the community and there are plenty of people who just want to make use of their technology on their own terms. They can put ads in this that’s their choice, but even adfree if tracking is bundled in it can’t be said to be ethical. The community excitement does baffle me a bit, respectfully.

Respectfully I think a point that is often missed with your mindset is how your capital is giving you your voting power. Market Socialist policy aims to even out that exact voting power and more labor focused socialism does the same without market forces. The issue is the hoard and the power that hoard is giving individuals (and firms) over us.

I’m in a similar position to you and I can see many of these policies would hurt me directly, but can also see the historical patterns and current material conditions. We need to build a future for everyone, everyone who agrees with that is a socialist if you argue with them long enough