Subj : Re: Windows vs Linux
To   : tenser
From : boraxman
Date : Sat Apr 23 2022 12:47:43

 te>  bo> You haven't won anything if the kernel sits underneath a prioprietary
 te>  bo> locked down wall garden.  As I said, I don't care one iota if my TV r
 te>  bo> Linux, if the TV is locked down anyway.
 te> 
 te> I don't think you understand.   It's not what's _on top_ of the
 te> kernel that limits you using your computer how you see fit, it's
 te> what is _underneath_ the kernel.  Many millions of instructions
 te> are run by hidden microcontrollers in a modern desktop system
 te> before the x86 cores even come out of reset; many billions of
 te> x86 instructions run before the bootloader you've installed is
 te> even started.  Hell, millions of x86 instructions run on Intel
 te> processors before you've even turned on DRAM.
 te> 
 te> But you ask, what have you won?  Well, if that allows someone to
 te> do some useful work, you've won quite a bit.
 te> 

https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2022-03-22-libreplanet-emacs-living-freedom/

This is a really good discussion on freedom, in the context of Emacs.  The lived experience is your freedom, your ability to use your machine as you see fit, and as computers are general purpose computers, in that they can simulate and reproduce any possible imagined workflow, the more the system allows you to realise that, the freer it makes you.

The fact that the x86 instruction set is an abstraction doesn't change this.  What gives you freedom isn't just the open hardware, the GPL, it actually how the software is written, whether it has documentation that allows you to understand it, whether it allows configuration, and designed to be used as part of a users vision, or the authors vision.

 te>  bo> Why should I want the kernel to succeed?
 te> 
 te> I have no idea.  You seem to be worried about someone taking away
 te> your "freedom" to muck with whatever Linux distribution you've
 te> installed.  I'm merely pointing out that that's already a niche
 te> use case, even within the wider Linux community.  That said, did
 te> your chosen distro switch to systemd?  Did you agree with that?
 te> Do you think you could switch to, say, OpenRC or even back to SysV
 te> init or whatever?
 te> 

They did switch to systemd, though the change had little impact on me (and I can switch to a non-systemd system without changing my OS paradigms).

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