I recently spent some time browsing my favorite website, Distrowatch.com, where they provide weekly news updates on the latest developments in the world of Linux distributions. This week, I noticed that a new distro had been added to their list: SDesk. Given its intriguing name, I decided to take a closer look and discovered that it utilizes a programming language called ‘Blue’.

What caught my attention was that to use this Blue programming language, one must pay $131! As someone who values open-source principles, I found this surprising, especially since many Linux distributions are built on the idea of free and open collaboration.

Other websites also features links to a previous GitHub page for Blue, which was removed. Without knowing the original license used by that project, it’s unclear whether using paid-for programming language in an open-source operating system would be legally acceptable. As I’m not a lawyer nor an expert online, I’d love to hear from anyone who might have insight into this matter.

To me, it seems counterintuitive for a Linux distro to incorporate proprietary programming tools that require payment to edit or modify code. This goes against the fundamental nature of open-source collaboration, where code is freely shared and repurposed. It’s an interesting development, to say the least what are your thoughts?

dead-github link https://github.com/SteveStudios/Blue

–edit also when finding the link duck duck go said it was GPL V3

  • TurboWafflz@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I like how the “wiki” on their website is just a bunch of uneditable premade articles so pretty much the exact opposite of a real wiki (also the articles are terrible, the “introduction to linux” looks like a perfect way to make someone give up on evem trying linux)

    • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.org
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      4 days ago

      A lot of websites do not know what wiki is supposed to be.

      One Czech search engine has a wiki page which is actually just a list of repeatedly searched things, and it does include a lot of wild stuff.