[FFmpeg-user] Yes or No? About the processing pipeline.

[Rob Hallam]

On Thu, 19 Jun 2025 at 15:04, Mark Filipak
<markfilipak.imdb-at-gmail.com at ffmpeg.org> wrote:
> On 19/06/2025 08.47, Rob Hallam wrote:
> > It's bizarre that FOSS is held up as an example of failure, never
> > succeeding, much worse than commercial software etc given the internet
> > is pretty near all hosted on Linux stacks, Android is Linux based.
>
> Stacks? Do you mean on Linux servers?

The internet runs on Linux. Phones run on Linux. Embedded devices run Linux.

> >... If you stop paying
> > a subscription to Adobe, what happens to software like Adobe Photoshop
> > / Illustrator- can you keep doing your graphic design job, or do they
> > just stop working?
>
> What happens if you stop putting gasoline in your car? Does it stop working?

Um, no. It continues to work with the gas it has. Same as everything
else I own: I don't need to pay the manufacturer on an ongoing basis.
Of course things are going in the direction of "you pay to rent
functionality like heated seats already present in your car", but
that's a different face of the same beast.  As you put it separately:

> a time when you could actually *buy* software
(emphasis mine)

> That's milking the cow.

Quite so.

> > Folks who work on Free software do so either at the behest of their
> > employer...
>
> Really? People are working writing free software at the behest of their employer? Or by "on Free
> software" do you mean _using_ free software?

Both are true but I meant the former, and I used Free as in freedom,
not free as in beer.

> >... or to do things that they want to do...
>
> There you go, Rob. People work on FOSS because they want to. I've never figured out why they do it.
> Why would I?

That's a huge question. You say you've never fighted out why- can you
not think of any reasons people might? If you were to read things
written (in English, not code) by FOSS contributors, whether prominent
or obscure, you'd find some interesting motivations. I came up with
about a half dozen good reasons off the top of my head.

> >... If you want to convince
> > them to change their approach,...
>
> That will never happen until their living is affected by your arguments. And that will never happen
> until there are bosses and standards and money. You will never get volunteers to cooperate so long
> as volunteering is unpaid. Unfortunately, Socialism doesn't work but devolves into "the rule of the
> strong."

Volunteering does work. Of course socialism works- see how much money
is taken as tax and given out as welfare businesses so they can keep
operating. Or perhaps you meant something else; that's often the case
when words aren't defined before use.

Cheers,
Rob