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Diffstat (limited to 'content-org/blog.org')
| -rw-r--r-- | content-org/blog.org | 80 |
1 files changed, 36 insertions, 44 deletions
diff --git a/content-org/blog.org b/content-org/blog.org index eae0cb94..d86e2825 100644 --- a/content-org/blog.org +++ b/content-org/blog.org @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ #+HUGO_SECTION: blog -* 2024 [51/51] :@blog: +* 2024 [52/52] :@blog: :PROPERTIES: :EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: blog/2024 :EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image_dir "blog/images" :image_max_width 600 @@ -16,12 +16,12 @@ :END: -** Free Software and the wrong crowd +** DONE Free Software and the wrong crowd +CLOSED: [2024-07-16 Tue 21:01] :PROPERTIES: :EXPORT_FILE_NAME: foss-wrong-crowd :EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract An essey about Free Software and the "wrong crowd" for it :END: - Free Software is a movement aiming at changing the world. Seize the means of computation! @@ -39,31 +39,29 @@ Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a programmer as breathing, an #+end_quote Stallman wrote it 40 years ago. -It's obvious that Open Source has won! +It's obvious that Free Software has won! We have GNU/Linux, Redis, Android, Emacs. Time to open champagne and dance on the grave of System V. -But is is really the best it's ever been? +But is it really the best it's ever been? -Personal computing is as widepsread as it never has been. -Virtually everyone, in every midly developed country has used a computer - even if in the form of a phone. +Personal computing is more widespread as it ever has been. +Virtually everyone, in every mildly developed country, has used a computer - even if in the form of a phone. We are living in the world of tomorrow. -And yes, open source software is the backbone of this world. -While there are still places where propetiery systems run the serverland, Linux is the default. +Free Software is the backbone of this world. +While there are still places where propriety systems run the server land, Linux is the default. Most people don't even think about too deep. -Web services run Linux (be it GNU or not). -Install Linux on AWS, throw Docker on top of it, sprinkle with Kubernetess and boom - a startup was born. +Web services run Linux (be it GNU or not) - install Linux on AWS, throw Docker on top of it, sprinkle with Kubernetes and boom - a startup was born. -The desktop is also having a pinguin moment. +The desktop is also having a penguin moment. Steam gave it the biggest push towards mass appeal. People can finally do their computing on a Linux machine - use the browser and play games. But note the trend here. -It's all intertwined with propietery software. -Linux popularity is not because it's free (as freedom), but /despite/ of it. -The push is happening because propetiery software can run on it! -I even think, that in 2024 Linux is actually free as in /free beer/. -It is owned by big tech, and while Linux still controls the kernel, he is paid by them. +It's all intertwined with proprietary software. +Linux popularity is here not because it's free (as freedom), but /despite/ of it. +The push is happening because proprietary software can run on it! +It is owned by big tech, and while Linus still controls the kernel, he is paid by them. It made him a (very) rich man, but in the process broader Linux is less GNU. @@ -79,34 +77,28 @@ And people clap, and party, and pat each other on the backs. /Open Source/ is eating the world! Even your phone most likely run a semi-open source operating system. -But in reality, unless you are talkig with people into FOSS, they don't care about any idealogy behind the software. +But in reality, unless you are speaking with people into FOSS, they don't care about any ideology behind the software. Whatever makes them productive, or simply get the thing done. -Tinkering is just a nuasance, a problem one needs to overcome to do the thing. - -I got my firt computer at the age of 8. -A glorious MS-DOS running 386 beast. -When I saw my mother running a game, it was magical. -But my actual love started with me discovering scripting with .bat files. -Writing a dedicated runner for the games was almost as cool as those 8 following hours spend building my Civilization. -I had a huge grim when I changed the boring =C:/= promt to =Yes Master?=. - -You can no longer do any of that on the most popular computers. -Software freedom has significantly dicreased in those 30 years since I first started discovering computing. -It's much harder to adjust modern OS to own needs (or even run it without an internet account), than it was back then. -Yes, the first few steps are much more noob friendly. -The very /basics/ of using the computer are easy. -But to go furher? -To make the computer /your own/? -It's difficult! - -Try changing accent color to =poo-brown= in MacOS. -It's impossible, while my Windows 95 was gloriously ugly. - - -- freedom is limitted -- people are forbidden to participate -- folks clap happily - +Tinkering is just a nuisance, a problem one needs to overcome to do /the thing/. + +The only thing which makes Linux popular is the opposite of what it was. +Linux is no longer a free land, ruled by the masses. +It went to bed with Big Tech, and stayed there. + +The moment of Linux is created by Valve and Steam. +They /made/ what thousands of open-source developers couldn't - run the software, which people want to use. +It just happens, that this kind of software is not free. +It's closed source, paid, full of licensing hells, DRMed throughout. +The kind of software Stallman warned us about. + +So no. +I am not thinking about the "year of Linux" as something good. +For me, this kind of /success/ is a failure of society. +Linux is fully usable by the wrong crowd, the one that would not touch it with a mile long pole when it was in the hands of hackers. +But this crowd is almost everyone who uses computers now. + +And Linux is simply a better version of Windows now. +Not the enemy we were though it is, but a companion. ** DONE Sports ruin everything |