I don’t have any reason right now to suspect this happening, but I can’t get it out of my mind that the Meshtastic project may at some point paywall the app or otherwise enshittify it as it gains popularity.

This sudden fear came at the heels of another open source project I had been using (PicoKey) deciding to pull some enshittification. The dev pulled down all the tools that let you configure the keys, left them down for several months, and finally released a paywalled app which is now the only way to configure them. Thankfully I am still using my Yubikey for most things and the PicoKey was just for some internal test stuff.

I know MeshCore does similar; you pay for the app but the firmware is free.

So, is this fear misplaced, justified, and does anyone see the project forking if this were to happen?

Edit: I’m aware of a few desktop apps such as an AIM-like messenger and a TUI-based one). I’m talking more for Android or iOS for sake of portability.

Edit 2: I’m not at all opposed to paying for things like this to support the developers. Far from it. But the paid version has to provide a benefit that does not come at the expense of intentionally making the existing/free version worse or just pulling it altogether (looking at you, PicoKey guy). I also won’t subscribe. Ever. lol.

  • Gravitywell.xYz@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    1 day ago

    I dont know if maybe there are premiun features with some apps but so far as i know the meshcore app is free as well, if it was to be paywalled the oldest non paywalled version would still work and most people probably wouldnt upgrade, its not like with a phone or other manufacturer locked device that can force upgrades and prevent downgrades, if a new update gets released and paywalls old festures most people would just not update.

    I could totally see some unofficial third party clients or things with improvements being paywalled by smaller groups or individual devs, but as a whole i dont think it would affect users ability to use the network.

    I could see newer features and improvements being paywalled in theory but i dont think it would be profitable to actively lock out older/free users. Anything too enshittifiying would either be ignored by most users or cracked and removed.

      • Gravitywell.xYz@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        1 day ago

        I was thinking of both tastic and core, but i wasnt aware core had a closed source app. The only paywalled limitation seems to be using that specific mobile app to manage repeaters remotely, meshcore-cli has no such arbitrary limitations.

        Mainly my point is that as long as the protocol is open nothing is stoping someone elss from creating a version that removes any paywalled limitations.

        • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
          3·
          1 day ago

          Oh, for sure. And the mesh core is open source firmware. And the protocol is open. The only thing that is closed source is the app. But since there is an open source app in development, that’s not even a big problem. Because it can just be bypassed.

          Personally, I would have nothing to do with meshcore until this new app was released. I played with it for about 10 minutes, about half a year ago, and realized the app was closed source, and have had nothing to do with it since then. Now that there is a fully open source app, I am willing to give it a try again.