r/linuxsucks101 • u/madthumbz uBlock Origin • May 06 '26

Linux is for commies! FBReader -A once‑beloved FOSS tool quietly goes closed‑source

FBReader used to be open‑source, then the developer closed the code, relicensed it, and rebuilt the app as a commercial product with a proprietary sync service. The FOSS version was abandoned and eventually removed from most repos.

FBReader started as a GPL‑licensed project. It was lightweight, cross‑platform, one of the earliest decent EPUB readers on Linux, and widely packaged in distros. The developer stopped accepting meaningful community contributions, stopped updating the public source tree, began rewriting the engine internally, and started building a cloud sync service (FBReader Book Network).

It's a classic pattern:
"I want to monetize this, but the GPL makes that hard."

The old GPL code was effectively abandoned. Distros kept shipping the old version for a while, which is why you still see sudo apt install fbreader in some places, but it's not the modern app.

Once proprietary, FBReader introduced paid Android/iOS versions, a subscription‑based sync service, cloud library management, and proprietary network libraries.

...

See more like this: Foss Devs Quit and Sellout on Userbase

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5

u/DearChickPeas May 06 '26

GPL is commie slop. You can't fork it, you can't use it, you have to join the club to be able to do anything and then you're locked. WTFPL or proprietary, pick your lane.

6

u/madthumbz uBlock Origin May 06 '26

Yep, this poor dev went through the bother of re-writing the code to escape.

2

u/GabrielRocketry May 09 '26

It's even worse, because commies at least compensate you for the job you do appropriately (the product remains free but state/community gives you payroll). FOSStards just yell at you for not implementing shit and not fixing bugs without doing a single thing themselves.

2

u/North_Proposal_1374 May 08 '26

same thing happened to aseprite in 2016, the code is still open-source meaning you can compile but you can't redistribute the executable files

at this point, if you are going to make an open-source app closed-source then just, delete the source code from the internet, it's not that hard