--- title: (What Comes) After FOSS? | daily.dev description: A research call explores what comes after the FOSS movement, arguing that while free and open source software has become dominant, the ideological movement... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/what-comes-after-foss--2c3tjhnv6 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: (What Comes) After FOSS? | daily.dev og:description: A research call explores what comes after the FOSS movement, arguing that while free and open source software has become dominant, the ideological movement... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/what-comes-after-foss--2c3tjhnv6 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/2C3tJhnv6.png og:image:alt: (What Comes) After FOSS? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # (What Comes) After FOSS? **[Lobsters](https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters)** · 1 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A research call explores what comes after the FOSS movement, arguing that while free and open source software has become dominant, the ideological movement behind it is fragmented, with many maintainers disillusioned. It seeks to understand how critical technologists are realigning their work with public-interest goals to sustain digital infrastructure going forward. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 10 comments across lobsters (as of 2026-08-17). **TL;DR:** Commenters largely push back on the framing that FOSS has been 'victorious,' debating instead whether the movement actually serves developers, and highlighting a restrictive-license Android keyboard as an interesting post-FOSS experiment. **Sentiment:** 15% positive · 45% mixed · 40% skeptical **The case for** - A privacy-first, offline local-LLM keyboard with a novel restrictive license is seen as a genuinely interesting post-FOSS experiment. - Some argue copyleft licenses like AGPL have succeeded at scaring off megacorps and protecting user freedoms. **The pushback** - Several dispute the premise that FOSS has 'won,' calling it at best a weird, hollow victory since the same corporations now rent it back to users. - Critics argue neither Free Software nor Open Source licensing has ever helped developers get paid, and both mainly benefit megacorps. - The proposed restrictive license is criticized as capital-centric and failing to consider users, favoring developer payment over user freedom. - The linked PDF/report itself is criticized as verbose, discursive, and hard to get value from, with a poorly functioning viewer. **By community** - lobsters (heated): Debate splits between defending FOSS's user-focused mission and arguing it has failed developers economically, alongside criticism of the report's readability. **Hottest debate:** Whether FOSS licensing serves developers or only users (and megacorps), sparked by a proposed license that charges for commercial use. **Open questions** - Can a license be designed that pays developers fairly without becoming exploitative of users or overly capital-centric? - Is FOSS's dominance a genuine victory or just corporations monetizing free labor back to the public? **Highlights** > Comparing with 20 years ago[1][2], when proprietary giants were waging war on FOSS, it kinda has. But it's a weird victory. Same giants that were fighting FOSS are now renting it back to us. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO%E2%80%93Linux_disputes [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Corp._v._TomTom_Inc. > — [marginalia on lobsters · 10 points](https://lobste.rs/s/i9u22k/what_comes_after_foss#c_hiumrq) > > Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) has been victorious Um. What? No? > — [singpolyma on lobsters · 6 points, 1 comments](https://lobste.rs/s/i9u22k/what_comes_after_foss#c_irimdt) > Impressively awful PDF viewer there. I downloaded and skimmed it. It's very verbose and discursive, in arts/academic style, and I didn't get a lot from it TBH, I'm afraid. It has not had much "airplay" but the most interesting post-FOSS move I've seen recently is an Android keyboard. https://keyboard.futo.tech/ It's a multiply-interesting confluence of tech, IMHO. * It is a new effort at a swiping keyboard, since Microsoft owns the best and killed it * It used a local LLM but it's privacy-first, offline -- the opposite of most LLM tech * It has a very interesting license: the source code is public, but the license is restrictive right where all the current ones aren't: it's free so long as you want to make free stuff, but if you want to make money off it, you need to pay. The license should profoundly upset both the Stallmanite Free Software folks _and_ the ESR/Perensian Open Source folks. Good. They deserve it. They've done nothing to help programmers get paid. Both camps just help megacorps get rich. This is the opposite of their supposed duty. > — [lproven on lobsters · 3 points, 3 comments](https://lobste.rs/s/i9u22k/what_comes_after_foss#c_yd0kis) > > It has a very interesting license: the source code is public, but the license is restrictive right where all the current ones aren't: it's free so long as you want to make free stuff, but if you want to make money off it, you need to pay. This sounds quite capital-centric. Where are the users taken care here? Feels like it's looked through the eyes of a non-technical person. > — [viccuad on lobsters · 3 points, 1 comments](https://lobste.rs/s/i9u22k/what_comes_after_foss#c_so5uys) > > Both camps just help megacorps get rich. How so? AGPL has been so successful at scaring away megacorps that some have outright banned any dependencies with that license: https://opensource.google/documentation/reference/using/agpl-policy. In cases where companies do adopt AGPL code, they are mandated to provide the source to their users, who can then use it for free as long as they guarantee the same freedoms AGPL imposes. > This is the opposite of their supposed duty. Ultimately the FOSS movement is mostly pro-user of course though, not necessarily pro-developer. I think at least the copyleft-side succeeds at that very well. > — [bramh on lobsters · 5 points](https://lobste.rs/s/i9u22k/what_comes_after_foss#c_ja6qhr) **Source threads** - [lobsters](https://lobste.rs/s/i9u22k/what_comes_after_foss) · 5 points · 10 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Open source is critical infrastructure, not just a development model](https://daily.dev/posts/open-source-is-critical-infrastructure-not-just-a-development-model-pmarhaehm) · All Things Open · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Reflections on the 2026 Open Data Infrastructure Report](https://daily.dev/posts/reflections-on-the-2026-open-data-infrastructure-report-8isnghx9p) · Linux Foundation · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Bridging the Open Source Gap: From Funding Paradoxes to Digital Sovereignty](https://daily.dev/posts/bridging-the-open-source-gap-from-funding-paradoxes-to-digital-sovereignty-jeavuzxlj) · InfoQ · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Open source's new mission: Rebuild a continent's tech stack](https://daily.dev/posts/open-source-s-new-mission-rebuild-a-continent-s-tech-stack-nh5xysaji) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Open Source, Open Infrastructure, and the Space Between](https://daily.dev/posts/open-source-open-infrastructure-and-the-space-between-dqjbbxdjk) · Security Boulevard · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/what-comes-after-foss--2c3tjhnv6) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"(What Comes) After FOSS?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-comes-after-foss--2c3tjhnv6","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-comes-after-foss--2c3tjhnv6"},"datePublished":"2026-08-17T18:17:18.438Z","dateModified":"2026-08-17T18:19:52.264Z","description":"A research call explores what comes after the FOSS movement, arguing that while free and open source software has become dominant, the ideological movement...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b3b474cfaa27d6c7d1187f88bbdf91c1?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b3b474cfaa27d6c7d1187f88bbdf91c1?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Lobsters","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Lobsters","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--tl8v_Fku--/f_auto,t_logo/v1698841318/logos/lobste.jpg","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-comes-after-foss--2c3tjhnv6","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source","timeRequired":"PT1M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lobsters","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"(What Comes) After FOSS?"}]} ```