The blue LED was supposed to be impossible—until a young engineer proposed a moonshot idea.

  • @muix
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    2210 months ago

    I was working for a place that was the market leader in a certain niche of simulation software. Their simulation was about 10x more efficient than their competitors. However, that version of the software is strictly off limits for the public, and made a version which they sold with a sleep statement so that it was only 1.1x faster than the next best solution. That way they could remain market leaders any time the competitors released a better version. Even though many systems rely on growing simulations to simulate bigger scenarios that could help save lives.

    Just an example of capitalism impeding progress.

      • @muix
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        710 months ago

        Exactly why I left that company.

        Specifically free (libre) licences, as permissive licences allow corporations to improve/adapt the software without contributing back to the community.

        I only work on software with GPL compatible licences now.

      • Cethin
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        210 months ago

        And open source software is explicitly anti-capitalist.

        • HACKthePRISONS
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          -310 months ago

          free software is. open source is an attempt to sell free software out to capitalist interest.

          eric raymond and the OSI are not good.

          • Cethin
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            110 months ago

            There are many forms of free and/or open source software.

              • Cethin
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                110 months ago

                Yeah, I guess the original statement was too broad, but any FOSS using a GPL license effectively is. I guess not anti-capitalist though, but un-capitalist. It doesn’t try to remove capitalism, it tries to be seperate from it.