---
sheet_format: 1.0
id: 2024-09-maci-115
title: "L’Open source, remède aux obsolescences"
title_en: "Open source, a cure for obsolescence"
speaker: Erwan Rougeux
with: [Horacio Gonzalez (host), Valentin Maerten, Gilles Biannic (Clever Cloud)]
date: 2024-09-16
event: "Message à caractère informatique #115"
place: "online / studio"
format: podcast
language: fr
duration: "45:49"
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA
slides: null
topics: [open source, licensing, right to repair, planned obsolescence, digital commons, education, data archiving, developer tools]
source: "Summary written by Claude (AI) from the local Whisper transcript, with statements attributed to Erwan by local identification of his voice only (other speakers are not identified). Not a verbatim transcript; check the recording before quoting."
review: spot-checked
review_date: 2026-10-18
---

# L’Open source, remède aux obsolescences

**In one sentence:** A MACI news episode on archiving and keeping knowledge alive, where Erwan presents an open-source espresso machine and argues that open hardware, the right to repair and open educational commons give people back control over their tools.

## TL;DR
Recorded on 16 September 2024, this episode gathers host Horacio Gonzalez, Valentin Maerten (Taskfile maintainer, Touraine Tech co-organiser), Gilles Biannic (Clever Cloud infrastructure team) and Erwan Rougeux (international growth at Clever Cloud). Valentin presents Taskfile and Zellij. The hosts discuss a RedMonk study finding no clear link between leaving open-source licences and company value, Elastic's return to open source and the Fair Source model, Microsoft's planned changes to kernel access after the CrowdStrike outage, and the music industry's dying 1990s hard drives. Erwan brings the diyPresso open-source espresso machine and uses it to talk about black-box products, repairability, open textbooks and Moodle. The episode ends on a Brest start-up that detects sleep apnoea from a microphone.

## Erwan's key points
- He presents an open-source espresso machine (diyPresso) whose website documents every part, and says an espresso machine is a gem of engineering: in the end a pump pushing hot pressurised water through coffee ([25:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1550s), [26:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1582s)).
- He admits a shop-bought machine will be far cheaper and less hassle; the point is to give people back control over the world around them, so that things do not become black boxes whose workings we forget ([27:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1648s)).
- He warns that layers of abstraction mean basic knowledge will end up reserved for experts, which feeds a "throw it away and buy a new one" cycle when the fault is sometimes a burnt-out capacitor ([27:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1678s), [28:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1708s)).
- He links this to his early Linux years, reinstalling almost daily after breaking the kernel, which taught him how things work. Today people are dispossessed: "you buy the object but it no longer belongs to you" ([31:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1892s), [32:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1922s)).
- He takes phone batteries as an example: once user-replaceable, now sealed for water resistance, so a battery change through a third party can cost nearly as much as a new phone. He points to Fairphone and repair cafés, notes that a 20-cent component is sometimes all a repair needs, and calls the repairability index mostly marketing ([32:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1953s), [33:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1980s), [34:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2040s)).
- From his former career, building French schools abroad, he stresses digital commons in education: open-source textbooks (he cites Sésamath and Alexis Kauffmann) give anyone access to teaching material and help close technological and educational gaps where children are waiting for school as a social lift ([34:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2070s), [35:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2101s), [35:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2132s)).
- He says Moodle, a fully open-source learning management system, is heavily used in Africa, where a single Moodle can serve more than 300,000 people, cites the Académie de Strasbourg for sharing free teaching sequences and question banks, and finds that Google Classroom and Microsoft 365 hit a glass ceiling that Moodle does not ([37:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2223s), [37:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2255s)).
- He points to a services company that built a modern, fluid new interface for Moodle and released it as open source ([39:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2353s)).

## Outline
- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=0s) Opening of episode 115, recorded on 16 September 2024.
- [00:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=30s) Introductions: Valentin Maerten (Tours, tech lead at Pubstack, Touraine Tech co-founder, Taskfile maintainer), Gilles Biannic (Brest, Clever Cloud team deploying VMs), Erwan (introduced as in charge of international growth at Clever Cloud and the show's IoT and home-automation expert), host Horacio Gonzalez.
- [02:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=161s) Valentin on Taskfile: a task runner written in Go, Go templating in commands, remote includes, monthly releases.
- [04:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=268s) YAML with a schema versus Makefile indentation errors; per-OS commands.
- [05:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=357s) A RedMonk study: moving from open source to proprietary licences brought no clear gain in company value (Elastic, Redis, HashiCorp).
- [07:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=446s) Erwan on what the first switch cost Elastic, and on the real issue: protecting open-source projects and their philosophy, a common good, amid a confusing proliferation of licences.
- [09:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=568s) Fair Source: each release becomes fully open source after a delay (one year in the example given).
- [11:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=662s) Elastic, OpenSearch and AWS: from lawsuits to partnership; pragmatism with a dominant player.
- [13:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=790s) After CrowdStrike, Microsoft works on more granular kernel access for security vendors.
- [15:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=923s) The music industry's 1990s hard drives are dying in climate-controlled storage; long-term digital archiving has no real solution.
- [16:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1015s) Likely Erwan: the majors spent millions fighting piracy yet lack the kind of backup plan European rules impose on any company.
- [17:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1073s) Not only the disks die but the machines able to read them; CD lifespan and error correction.
- [21:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1280s) Valentin on Zellij, a Rust terminal workspace: visible shortcuts, layouts per project, saved sessions, Rust plugins.
- [25:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1509s) The host suspects Erwan brought the next news item.
- [25:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1550s) Erwan presents an open-source espresso machine with its plans and schematics.
- [27:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1648s) Erwan: giving people control back, avoiding black boxes and throw-away cycles.
- [28:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1736s) Other participants debate plug-and-play 3D printers and spare parts that are no longer available.
- [31:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1892s) Erwan: MacGyver, early Linux kernel tinkering, and being dispossessed of the right to repair; phone batteries.
- [33:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1980s) Erwan: Fairphone, repair cafés, cheap components and the repairability index.
- [34:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2070s) Erwan on digital commons in education and open-source textbooks.
- [35:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2159s) Another participant: in French schools, reusing shared material is often frowned upon by the hierarchy.
- [37:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2223s) Erwan on Moodle in Africa, the Académie de Strasbourg, and the limits of Google and Microsoft classroom tools.
- [38:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2289s) Others: Google Classroom is turnkey; Moodle's growth during the pandemic.
- [39:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2353s) Erwan: an open-source modern interface for Moodle.
- [39:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2391s) A Brest company and the Brest university hospital detect sleep apnoea from a microphone recording processed by AI.
- [42:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2534s) "Real" AI applications beyond stochastic parrots; a detection rate around 92% as a first filter before a specialist.
- [44:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2676s) Wrap-up; closing song chosen by Valentin: Colombine, "Adieu bientôt".

## Notable quotes
> "Ce que j'aime bien c'est redonner aux gens un contrôle sur le monde qui les entoure." — Erwan Rougeux, [27:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1648s)
*"What I like is giving people back control over the world around them."*

> "T'achètes l'objet mais il ne t'appartient plus." — Erwan Rougeux, [32:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1922s)
*"You buy the object, but it no longer belongs to you."*

> "L'indice de réparabilité qu'on nous a mis de plus en plus à la mode, en fait tu te rends compte que c'est juste marketing." — Erwan Rougeux, [34:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2040s)
*"The repairability index they've made so fashionable: you realise it's just marketing."*

> "Avoir des solutions open source même sur des manuels scolaires, ce qu'on appelle des biens communs, joue un rôle in fine pour un monde meilleur." — Erwan Rougeux, [35:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2132s)
*"Having open-source solutions even for school textbooks, what we call commons, ultimately plays a part in a better world."*

## Questions this answers
**Q: Why would anyone build an open-source espresso machine?**
A: Not to save money, says Erwan: a shop-bought machine is far cheaper. The point is to understand how things work, so products do not become black boxes and can be repaired instead of thrown away. See [27:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1648s).

**Q: What does Erwan Rougeux think about the right to repair?**
A: He argues that people are being dispossessed of technical knowledge and of the ability to repair, citing sealed phone batteries, and calls the French repairability index mostly marketing. He points to Fairphone and repair cafés. See [32:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1922s) and [33:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=1980s).

**Q: Why do open educational resources matter outside France?**
A: From his experience setting up French schools abroad, Erwan says open-source textbooks and teaching commons give access to knowledge where school is not taken for granted and help close educational gaps. See [35:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2101s).

**Q: Is Moodle still relevant compared with Google Classroom or Microsoft 365?**
A: Erwan says Moodle is widely used in Africa and that the big vendors' tools hit a glass ceiling Moodle does not, though they are more ergonomic; another participant notes they are turnkey for schools. See [37:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2223s) and [38:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2289s).

**Q: Did switching away from open-source licences make companies more valuable?**
A: A RedMonk study discussed in the episode found no clear link either way. Erwan argues the real question is how to protect open-source projects from free-riders, and the hosts present Fair Source as a middle path. See [05:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=357s) and [09:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=568s).

**Q: What is Taskfile and why use it instead of Make?**
A: Its maintainer Valentin Maerten describes a task runner written in Go, with loops, prompts, Go templating, per-OS commands and remote includes, released about monthly. See [02:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=161s).

**Q: Why are the music industry's master recordings at risk?**
A: The hosts explain that 1990s hard drives are failing even in controlled storage, and the hardware to read them is disappearing too. See [15:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=923s).

**Q: How can a microphone detect sleep apnoea?**
A: A Brest company working with the local university hospital records breathing overnight and analyses it with AI, as a faster first screening before a specialist. See [39:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHHj9RR1YA&t=2391s).

## Mentioned
Sésamath, Clever Cloud, Taskfile, Make, Go, YAML, Pubstack, Touraine Tech, Aurélie Vache, RedMonk, Elastic, Elasticsearch, Redis, HashiCorp, OpenTofu, OpenSearch, Amazon, AWS, Fair Source, Microsoft, Windows, CrowdStrike, Linux, Zellij, tmux, Rust, diyPresso, MacGyver, Fairphone, repair cafés, Éducation nationale, Alexis Kauffmann, Moodle, Académie de Strasbourg, Google Classroom, Microsoft 365, LinkedIn, CHU de Brest