[mdlug] "non-free javascript"

[Ron / BCLUG]

LAP wrote on 2025-01-08 02:25:

> I would suppose that he is referring to the GNU LibreJS project:
> 
> https://www.gnu.org/software/librejs/index.html

Having read through that, I do have a few issues, even though I'm an 
ardent FLOSS supporter.

 >  For instance, Google Docs tries to install into your browser a
 > JavaScript program which measures half a megabyte

Okay.

And how big an application would a binary executable be that performed 
the same functionality?  Would probably have to be statically linked to 
ensure consistent UI/UX across all platforms...


 > in a compacted form that we could call Obfuscript.

That's a bit incendiary, "Obfuscript". Clever though.

Of course, if it weren't minified, there'd be complaints about it being 
too big.


Can't win sometimes.



As for the rest of it, the definition of a "non-trivial" JS program is 
maybe a bit arbitrary, but whatever.


As for the actual non-minified source code not being available, yeah, 
that could be considered an issue in a dogmatic or ideological sense, 
but realistically, I can't get too upset about it.


There are several open source projects where they did everything 
correctly, then along comes Amazon or someone and makes a killing on 
implementing the project, often without contributing back, and that's a 
tough problem to solve.

The license grants the right, but the devs are kinda screwed.



I'm finishing off a web app that does Recency / Frequency / Monetary 
analysis of transaction data for marketing. It's something I conceived 
of and wrote 100% myself. Took a *lot* of time.

If I open-sourced it, I'd be very concerned some large org would just 
stand up their own instance of it and start charging a good price for 
each run of data through it.

So, there's no way I'd open-source it unless on my death bed.


Yet, I still consider myself a FLOSS advocate.


TL;DR

Cannot expect *every* piece of source code to be released, it's not 
realistic.

Focus on the tools / infrastructure and be happy how far we've come 
since the '90s.



Thanks for letting me rant & rave.


Shameless plug for RFM tool I'm working on, still in dev / testing:

http://bclug.ca:3009

Uses open source ReactJS, open source Google's Material UI, open source 
Nodejs, open source PostgreSQL, on Linux on a RPi.

I think it's pretty slick and useful.

Closed source application.