Is Open Source a diversion from what users really want?


When I started working on Ardour, it never occured to me to do anything other than use the GNU Public License (GPL), the most well-known way to release “open source” software. At that time, it a choice driven by a combination of...
my passionate belief in what is more appropriately called "free/libre software"
an awareness that I'd probably need help developing Ardour. The open source model seemedto me the best way to make it possible for others to contribute (no matter what their motivations might have been).
the desirability of being able to use dozens of software libraries released under GPL-related licenses
Of course, developing software with complexity on the level of Ardour’s is never going to be easy, and finding other people willing and able to contribute to such a project is always going to be hard, whether you’re an open source project or a proprietary company.
However, underlying both of those reasons why I wanted to use the GPL was a conviction the access to the source code was critical to both:
giving users the freedom they deserved
attracting developers (or even just "power users") to contribute to the project.
I remain convinced that access to source code is a fundamental part of the "four freedoms" that Richard Stallman has outlined as the basis of the concept of "free/libre software". But as described at great length and exhaustive detail by Berlin-based electronic musician and developer Louigi Verona, it's not quite that simple.
Also: Davis: Is Open Source a diversion from what users really want?
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