this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023

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which ones do you think I missed? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

198 comments fedilink hide all child comments

image transcription:

big collage of people captioned, "the only people I wouldn't have minded being billionaires"
names(and a bit of info, which is not included in the collage) of people in collage(from top left, row-wise):

Alexandra Elbakyan, creator of Sci-Hub. perhaps the single-most important person in the scientific community regarding access to research papers.
Linus Torvalds, creator of linux kernel and git, courtesy of which we have GNU/Linux.
David Revoy, french artist famous for his pepper&carrot, a libre webcomic. inspiration for artists who are into free software movement
Richard Stallman, arch-hacker who started it all. founded the GNU project, free software movement, Emacs, GCC, GPL, concept of copyleft, among many other things. champions for free software to this day(is undergoing treatment for cancer at the moment).
Jean-Baptiste Kempf, president of VLC media player for 2 decades now
Ian Murdock, founder of Debian GNU/Linux and Debian manifesto. died too soon.
Alexis Kauffmann, creator of framasoft, a French nonprofit organisation that champions free software. known for providing alternatives to centralised services, notable one being framapad and peertube.
Aaron Swartz, a brilliant programmer who created RSS, markdown, creative commons, and is known for his involvement in creation of reddit. he also died too soon.
Bram Moolenaar, creator of vim, a charityware.

on the bottom right is the text reading, "plus the thousands of free software enthusiasts working tirelessly."

(page 2) 50 comments

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

As funny as the thought of Stallman becoming a billionaire is, ultimately, like all celebrities, these people are strangers to the overwhelming majority of you. Parasocial relationships are never healthy, and the result of being put on a pedastal is that they became idols and symbols and ceases being people.

And I don't think that's what they would have wanted.

After all, the only good billionaire is a Barbi-onaire.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

How would they earn billions without getting the money from other people's work?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Cory Doctorow

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

agree with @[email protected], power corrupts – radix malorum est cupiditas

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Idk man we just saw a week ago how atrociously Linus used to treat people. Imagine combining that with enough greed to hold onto a billion dollars. Imagine what any of these people would be like if they were the type to ruthlessly exploit others to get rich. I think a billionaire Linus would be worse than Bill Gates. At least Gates is a nice guy.

It is the act of holding onto that much wealth that is immoral, not who is doing it. This is just fantasizing from a painfully neoliberal perspective: OP is imagining the world would be better if the good guys hoarded inconceivable amounts of wealth and exploited the labor of others.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I haven't met gates and I agree these days he comes across pleasantly, but perhaps you are not old enough to remember stories of what he was like in his 30s and 40s when Microsoft was younger. He was a tyrant and viscously anticompetitive. As a husband my understanding is that he cheated on his wife (not uncommon I know but still hurtful). He might have become a somewhat better person, maybe, but he certainly wasn't one when he was making his fortune.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Would these people actually be billionaires though? Seems to me many of them would put that money to good use instead.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It would probably ruin them and their work though. While I have little sympathy for the plights of billionaires, it's difficult for people to not allow that level of ridiculous wealth and power to affect them. These people have found a much healthier path to success. I'm sure the living ones are all financially comfortable without the ridiculous distortion of excess wealth.

Also though I'd object to anyone being a billionaire since it's absurd.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

The creator of Vim is unfortunately no longer with us.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Fundamentally speaking, none of these people would've ended up as billionaires for long. Most FOSS heavyweights already gave up their chance at being much more wealthy for their current roles. That being said, I'm pretty sure Linus and a few others here aren't exactly short on cash

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I dont want anybody to be a billionaire, also they couldn't because to be one you have to be exploitative and a bad person

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's not necessarily true. My cousin is the nicest person you could meet, he was a programmer who tinkered around with a package delivery tracking system, and Fexex bought him out for almost 2 billion. He became one of our wealthiest citizens overnight. And he's amazing, he doesn't exploit people and he is not a bad person by any definition.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Ian Murdock, founder of Debian GNU/Linux and Debian manifesto. died too soon.

ACAB

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I never heard the acronym before.
also, you could say that in case of Aaron Swatrz too.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Hummmmm...Lennart Pottering?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I would be OK if the guy that made Stardew Valley became a billionaire.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Ooh, I've met three of them on this list. Jean-Baptiste was the best though ;)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There's a whole bunch of people that deserve to become billionaires a lot more than people in tech and that would have a much better impact on the world if they did. I would much rather have a bunch of billionaire physicists, immunologists, virologists, pediatricians and so on.

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