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@Demolishun Well, for one, I wouldn't call malware ethical when it comes to software but that's besides the point.
I personally refuse to use any software made by Facebook because this company doesn't give a fuck about privacy/human rights.
But I'd also rather use an (open source) application than one made by a commercial company (proprietary)
Next to that I find open source more ethical than proprietary in the sense that it gives a user control over the software and it can be publicly reviewed and thus checked for security flaws/backdoors and such. -
@linuxxx Ah, okay, I can respect that position. Yes, software can definitely be developed to unethical ends.
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Proprietary software is less ethical because, in the current state of OS APIs and hardware security, it forces the user to trust the company with almost all their data. The only two scenarios where this doesn't happen are with FOSS and webapps. (And I mean PWAs, not Electron.) This is an ethical question primarily for messaging and social apps because the individual users don't get to choose whether to use them or not; they use whatever their friends use, therefore regardless of any legal bullshit, ethically the service is responsible for keeping their own power over the user at a reasonable level.
I think I have multiple but this guy stands out.
He was a fellow student at my software development study. Used primarily FOSS systems/software, not because he cared about ethics as much but because that way he could tinker with the software as much as he wanted.
He was always searching for new things to tweak, write, explore and so on. And he shared as much as he could with fellow students.
A few examples of what he did:
- wanted to change something about how Linux worked at its core (he mainly used debian based systems) so he learned how to write kernel modules and wrote his solution.
- wanted to be able to monitor his gas/power usage so he hacked an arduino thing into the power/gas meter and got it to send updates to a messenger at command.
- setup and automated mini data center because fuck it, fun to do.
His thinking was always very creative and to this day I still appreciate what he taught me on that!
rant
wk210