You're presenting a false dichotomy: most software is neither proprietary or FOSS; it's in-house, custom-developed functionality, that's never released/available outside of the business that created it.
Its only "user" is the business that made it; they have full access to the source (unless they deleted it; whoops!), are not bound by its copyright (since they're the owners), etc. The FSF has no problem with that.
Although my first job was working on FOSS, all the ones since have been working on such bespoke, in-house software. To be honest, I don't think I've ever seen a job ad for proprietary software (as in, closed-source software that runs on end-user machines).
A few subtleties:
- Javascript is probably a glaring exception. Opinions differ on whether it should count as shipping proprietary software (the FSF think it is, many HNers probably consider it less clear-cut). For what it's worth, the little JS I've written professionally has always been of a progressive, site-still-works-without-it form.
- Some of that never-released software may be accessible to others, e.g. Google's search software can be accessed via google.com. The AGPL has an interesting take on that particular niche.
- Sometimes the human end-users of this software have very limited access/control over it, e.g. if Walmart maintains its own checkout software, those operating the checkouts probably can't access the source, etc. However, that's nothing to do with copyright, FOSS, etc. it's just a business decision, presumably covered by employment contracts (e.g. "in the course of your work you may be given access to computer systems; these are confidential, and you must not hack/compromise/etc.").
Its only "user" is the business that made it; they have full access to the source (unless they deleted it; whoops!), are not bound by its copyright (since they're the owners), etc. The FSF has no problem with that.
Although my first job was working on FOSS, all the ones since have been working on such bespoke, in-house software. To be honest, I don't think I've ever seen a job ad for proprietary software (as in, closed-source software that runs on end-user machines).
A few subtleties:
- Javascript is probably a glaring exception. Opinions differ on whether it should count as shipping proprietary software (the FSF think it is, many HNers probably consider it less clear-cut). For what it's worth, the little JS I've written professionally has always been of a progressive, site-still-works-without-it form.
- Some of that never-released software may be accessible to others, e.g. Google's search software can be accessed via google.com. The AGPL has an interesting take on that particular niche.
- Sometimes the human end-users of this software have very limited access/control over it, e.g. if Walmart maintains its own checkout software, those operating the checkouts probably can't access the source, etc. However, that's nothing to do with copyright, FOSS, etc. it's just a business decision, presumably covered by employment contracts (e.g. "in the course of your work you may be given access to computer systems; these are confidential, and you must not hack/compromise/etc.").