Is it not worth Linux running on mainframes because mainframes are expensive? Is it not worth Kerberos being free software because the only real users of Kerberos are enterprises?
Computing freedom for anyone is computing freedom, and contributes to a norm of user control instead of service provider control. This step is a very small step, and it only affects a few users. But it's still a step in the right direction.
(Something self-hosted like IRC is a much better step, and I'm glad there are free software/on-prem direct Slack competitors now, too. That's also a step in the right direction!)
Both of the technologies you named as examples are free and open. Anyone can inspect them and deploy them on their own. Slack isn’t like that unfortunately. This is a move to add another feature that will attract enterprise customers, I would doubt that even Slack themselves would proclaim this as a move towards greater software freedom.
I agree that this move is articulating enterprise customer demands rather than demonstrating greater software freedom. I don’t view this as unfortunate though. Slack is a productivity and collaboration product versus a utility like a low level database or encryption method. As such, many users and businesses want to pay for support, added features, hosting/availability/backups. It is better to have someone having to pay Slack a lot for power features than have a bunch of targeted ads in Slack. The buck stops somewhere.
> Anyone can inspect them and deploy them on their own
That's what I don't get from reading this thread. Like you said, Kerberos does have its uses outside enterprise deployments, and if you want authenticated/encrypted NFS for whatever reason it's really one of your only options.
> Is it not worth Linux running on mainframes because mainframes are expensive?
Honest question: what is it worth to me? I don't but into this "any linux usage is a win" mentality. Linux being used on tivos is worthless to me (https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary-tyrants.en.html), and it's hard to see why Linux running on hardware I will never have the opportunity to own should be worth anything to me either. Am I expected to cheer for the linux team no matter the circumstance?
Still benefits you; more users to bolster the ecosystem (contributing to shared code), and code that later turns out to be useful (many-cpu systems were expensive supercomputers... right up until they started landing on desks).
Computing freedom for anyone is computing freedom, and contributes to a norm of user control instead of service provider control. This step is a very small step, and it only affects a few users. But it's still a step in the right direction.
(Something self-hosted like IRC is a much better step, and I'm glad there are free software/on-prem direct Slack competitors now, too. That's also a step in the right direction!)