antagonism towards our allies in the open source movement

The “open source movement” splintered from Free Software specifically to circumvent the ethical ramifications that those “pages and pages of dense philosophical essays” are about. That movement has never been an “ally” to Free Software. It was an antagonistic relationship from the start.

And hip new software isn’t using copyleft

That’s not an accident. And it’s not because people don’t know about the GPL or copyleft. It’s because the vast majority of programmers earn their (substantial) bread and butter from companies that want nothing to do with copyleft. Programmers don’t get paid to write copyleft code, and any code that they do write off-the-clock, they also want to be able to use on-the-clock, leaving only “open source” licenses for that code too.

This isn’t something that the FSF can “fix.” This is something that boils down to each and every individual programmer deciding whether or not to prioritize Freedom over money.

leaving us vulnerable to exploitation from growing movements like open core and commercial attacks on the free and open source software brand.

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the relationship between free software and open source needs to be reformed so that the FSF and OSI stand together as the pillars at the foundations of our ecosystem

“Open Source” is the exploitative “growing movement.” Never forget: Open Source Misses the Point. This was always the point of “open source,” and the FSF has been clear about that forever. Drew is complaining about the exploitation as if it’s a bug. It’s not! It’s the killer feature! The call is coming from inside the house. The FSF and the OSI cannot “stand together” because they are built upon mutually exclusive ideologies and priorities.

The FSF fails to understand its place in the world as a whole, or its relationship to the progressive movements taking place in the ecosystem and beyond.

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If the FSF still wants to be involved in the movement, they need to recognize and empower the leaders who are pushing the cause forward.

The FSF knows its place perfectly well. It is the bulwark against the so-called “progress” of “open source.” The FSF may be on the losing side currently. But it’s not on the wrong one. “Open source” isn’t “pushing the cause forward.” It is the principle driver of the cause’s decline, leeching energy from Free Software in the name of placating industry.

We’ve had 20+ years of that arrangement. And it’s gone about as well as the FSF said it would.