What in tarnation?! That is such a bummer. I have been a fan of Louis Rossman for years, and that he lent his credibility to FUTO made me think they must be cool, that and their claims of donating to good FOSS projects…and around FOSS and self-hosting circles, projects like Grayjay and Immich are frequently touted as the best alternatives for people who care about their privacy…

1. I imagine I’ll keep using Grayjay as it is free, and ad-free, and the source code is publicly available so I know they’re not hiding any data mining or the like, and they won’t be profiting off me
2. I’m off to head down a rabbit hole to validate the claims in this post…wish me luck everyone!

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EDIT: Back from the Rabbit Hole. Yeah, it looks like FUTO is run by a fascist-sympathizing arsehole. There ARE some cool things about them. Their main business model seems to be freeware that you can pay for if you want to support but paying doesn’t get you extra features and free doesn’t get you ads, or anything else bad.

Most of their software is source code available, so users can see what’s under the hood, but it’s not GPL (or similar), you can’t fork, and you can’t do with what you please. That’s not my favorite, but the real kicker is them trying to redefine what open source means to shoehorn that model into being called “open source,” it’s not.

The big exception being Immich, which they did not develop, but recently bought. I’m torn here: Immich was primarily made by volunteers and FUTO is giving the team full time salaries and making it so they don’t have to work other jobs. Immich has (at least for now) remained fully open source (AGPL 3.0). But, donations to the project now go to FUTO, and I’m sure other people like me will assume good things about FUTO when they see they make Immich, which is, I think, stolen valor (or I guess, bought valor).

I found another thread about it, and think this comment from u/cecilkorik@lemmy.ca is right:

I think Louis Rossmann’s heart is in the right place, his work for right for repair is genuine, his disdain for New York’s intolerable bureaucracy is completely understandable and justified, but it is leading him in bad directions and has been ever since he linked up with FUTO. Never trust a billionaire and never let them delude you into thinking they care about you or anyone. He is being used for his reputation and his audience and when they are done consuming those things for the billionaire’s cause’s benefit he will be left with neither one and the billionaire will move on without slowing down or shedding a tear.

In the end, I think migrating of FUTO apps is a good idea, but since they are free and ad-free, if you use them, you can at least take solace knowing you’re not making them any money, just don’t get suckered in and donate to their for-profit, seemingly shady company.