Ask HN: Are there any tools you don't use/support for ethical reasons? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are there any tools you don't use/support for ethical reasons?

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Just wondering if anyone eschews something like the recent React Native release on the grounds of opposing Facebook corporate policy (on patents, press baronage, or what have you)?

I will admit to using what I think are the best tools, even when I worry about where they're coming from. I'm split though if this is necessarily bad.

Sure I'm supporting Facebook (who does bad things) but I'm also supporting Facebook open-sourcing their code (which is a good thing).

Thoughts?

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There are a lot of otherwise appealing jobs that I don't apply to for ethical reasons. For example I have experience with C++ quantitative investment work, but I won't do it anymore as I came to regard it as immoral - that kind of code is used by those who understand finance, to take money from those who don't.

Careful believing whenever HN / Reddit tells you something is bad.

It's a similar group behavior to how towns can form a hate for the opposing town's soccer team. In that case, it can get so carried away as to lead to physical violence between the groups. This is the same level of backing as there is for some of the things Reddit and HN are constantly repeating that they hate. Pure emotion, basically.

Anything from Walmart Labs. I just can't bring myself to use any of their open-source projects. I know it is a separate entity, but it just makes the code.. smell bad.

I won't even set foot in a walmart store anymore, not since it won the gender-discrimination lawsuit that was pressed by its female employees.

slow clap

I am dead serious when I say this: for ethical reasons, I avoid pretty much anything that's licensed under the GPL.

Google updated its algorithm, but still s*cks. I'm also using https://swisscows.com. It provides great results, it's more secure, doesn’t store tracking cookies or user queries.

The opposite question would be as, if not more, interesting: are there tools that you use or support out of a sense of moral obligation?

Yes:

iojs

llvm

clang

ghc

react

meteor

Mac OS X

I am curious why you feel morally obligated to use OS X, React and Meteor. Your other comment mentions avoiding the GPL but I am unaware of GPL-licensed competitors to React or Meteor, so I assume it's a different reason than with Clang vs GCC.

My reason is that I want to use the best available tool I can get my hands on, so that I can do right by the people that use my software (provide them with the new features and support they want, as quickly and cost-effectively as is possible).

GPL advocates say that doing right by my users amounts to providing them with 100% of the source code of the applications that I and any collaborators write.

Most of my users are not technical, and could not care less about the source code behind the apps they use. They just want something that's easy to use and reliable.

Some people see this very differently than I do, but my take is that being moral means doing right by and for yourself first, where "yourself" includes concern for the specific people and things that are important in your life. For people you don't know personally, the right attitude is benevolence (unless and until a particular person gives you a good reason to avoid them.)

Maybe some people say that I could live by that standard with the GPL, but my own judgement is that I (as well as the people and things that I care about) am far better off without being encumbered by it in the slightest.

For compiled software, pretty much anything that isn't GPL is a no-go for me.

For non-compiled software (e.g. Javascript, PHP, Python, Perl, Shell), license doesn't matter to me since I can just see the damn code. Unless it's obfuscated.

Google Charts. Not comfortable sending my data through them because I don't trust them.

I also stopped using any of Google's services, because their products are made so smart, that when you realize why it's free, you've already given up too much of your data into the wrong hands.

Enabling the location services on your phone in example, asks you only once to "increase" the precision by using using cellular, gps and nearby WiFi SSIDs. That's because Google lost a lawsuit for illegaly collecting a database of all SSIDs. Now they let you do it.

But think about it, how can they improve the precision of your phone's location services, when GPS + Celular already are accurate within 1-2m? I mean nearby SSID's won't magically give you military precision and more precision than what you have with GPS+celular alone is not even required.

I'm using https://swisscows.ch instead of http://google.com, because it's more secure, faster, less personalized, equally strong in features and provides me with more accurate results than duckduckgo.com + it has semantic filtering tiles that I really started liking.

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