Hey dear reader,

you see not the need for free and libre software? Well, your own decision. But perhaps when you look closer for example at the entertainment software (games) you will surely agree that those released (most non-free) software is more and more bound on the producing companies instead of being in the hands of their users. When Steam was released and enforced with some titles in 2003 there was major criticism about enforced dependencies and adaption of users. Some years later the criticism gone more and more silent.

And nowadays? Well, make your picture: When stating that those services are (A) DRM and (B) pure non-free software there are enough apologists stating: "Okay, but you can use also offline someway!" or "See how those platforms have changed the chances for gamers also under Linux!" ... the arguments are very wide drawn. And yes I have stated "Linux" and not GNU/Linux, because even here the argumentation is not inbound on more details.

But why am I writing this here in exactly that part of the forums? It was stated before of enforced adaption and now look at the points companies like UbiSoft and others have done: They did a shutdown for servers and a game with enforced online-connections stopped working, complete without any turnback or handout for users to patch it. So it is exactly happening what was stated so often: Software is made useless with those "SaaS" (https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does … ve.html.en). Users have no chance to get hands on sources, no chances to modify the software for keeping it to run. And getting hands on second hand software? More and more impossible.

This is the first point. But there is another question: And why do we really want free and libre projects bound more and more on those mentioned platforms (like Steam)? Just to have those projects to be known and recognized? To be seen? And what about rising implementations of non-free interfaces like for example Discord? Yes, this is another non-free service and it is not helping users. It just shows how bad the position of free and libre software is for real. And how bad the situation is for software in general. No preservation possible, no learning and no real history of information. As said in the title: Software for the trashcan.

Why not releasing sources and data for the community, under free and permissive licensing? So people can step into, take back their software and also their own beloved memories. And what about on-going development of projects, even free and permissive licensed, using and including more non-free services? Why is there not more movement from people to take back their technical emancipation? Remember: The global network is nothing we should count for being available all-time.