Post AvWD9Xs5qKdVNEsm2q by fireborn@dragonscave.space
(DIR) More posts by fireborn@dragonscave.space
(DIR) Post #AvWD9Xs5qKdVNEsm2q by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-06-26T07:58:26Z
3 likes, 2 repeats
I woke up to a comment so smug, so perfectly soaked in gatekeeping and faux-righteous posturing, it earned its own blog post.You want freedom? You want GNU/Linux to mean something?Then maybe start by not telling disabled users to go fuck themselves with a smile.This commenter thought they were defending "software freedom." What they were really doing was kicking people out of the room. Dismissing accessibility. Mocking effort. Pretending that cruelty is some kind of rite of passage. They quoted Stallman like it was scripture, ignored real-world experience like it was noise, and wrapped it all in condescension dressed as virtue.I’ve spent over a decade in this ecosystem. Writing patches. Rebuilding broken stacks. Helping blind users boot systems upstream doesn’t even test. I didn’t "just install Arch and whine about the terminal." I lived in it. I survived it. I held it together when maintainers disappeared and no one else gave a damn.But apparently, because I didn’t call it GNU/Linux™ and because I dared to talk about how this OS chews people up and spits them out, I’m lazy. I’m weak. I should "get a dog."So I wrote a response. Line by line. No mercy. No euphemisms.This isn’t just about one comment. This is about every time someone’s been told they don’t belong because they couldn’t learn fast enough, code well enough, or survive long enough. It’s about everyone who was pushed out while the gatekeepers patted themselves on the back for "preserving the spirit of free software."You want a free system? Start by making it livable. Because freedom that demands you crawl bleeding through a broken bootloader isn’t freedom. It’s abandonment dressed in ideology.And if this kind of gatekeeping is your idea of community?You can keep it.https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/you-dont-own-the-word-freedom-a-full-burn-response-to-the-gnulinux-comment-that-tried-to-gatekeep-me-off-my-own-machine/#Linux #GNU #FOSS #Accessibility #BlindTech #FreeSoftware #Gatekeeping #DisabilityInTech #OpenSource #Orca #ScreenReaders #ArchLinux #BurnItDown #blogpost
(DIR) Post #AvWD9fHWIC8OM7pg9I by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-06-26T09:15:13Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
The only reason I responded to it, the only reason I approved it at all actually, is because it embodies every single one of the Linux stereotypes that people say happens and they are told they are wrong or making it up. There are a few more negative comments in the pending queue that I'm just not going to touch
(DIR) Post #AvWDbkcI3CDj0hwLjc by hopeless@mas.to
2025-06-26T09:49:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@fireborn Just noting that with a FOSS project, every feature or task or documentation or even dealing with contribution, has to have somebody's remaining time on the planet exchanged to do the work, usually for free and without thanks.That's not excusing people getting burned / publicly humiliated. But... how is what you are doing here to the annoying commenter, any different to what you are raging against when it was done to you?
(DIR) Post #AvWDbm9eKeUzmSYVN2 by asie@mk.asie.pl
2025-06-26T09:55:35.929Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@hopeless@mas.to @fireborn@dragonscave.space How is fighting back different from picking a fight?I think the blog post, and the author in general, is pretty cognizant of the fact free software takes labor to produce - but if the ecosystem of free software replaces exploitation by data collection and malicious advertising with exploitation by demands of charity and burned out volunteers, maybe it's not as much of an improvement as it is touted to be after all.
(DIR) Post #AvWDiCCEQH36HipBeS by asie@mk.asie.pl
2025-06-26T09:56:51.063Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@hopeless@mas.to @fireborn@dragonscave.space How is fighting back different from picking a fight?I think the blog post, and the author in general, is pretty cognizant of the fact free software takes labor to produce. The author has also given credit where credit was due in previous installments, they very explicitly weren't just about criticizing the Linux-centric ecosystem. However, if the culture of free software replaces exploitation by data collection and malicious advertising with exploitation by demands of charity and burned out volunteers, maybe it's not as much of an improvement as it is touted to be after all.
(DIR) Post #AvWDxLdJcRePtdiZjU by asie@mk.asie.pl
2025-06-26T09:59:35.201Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@hopeless@mas.to @fireborn@dragonscave.space How is fighting back different from picking a fight?I think the blog post, and the author in general, is pretty cognizant of the fact free software takes labor to produce. The author has also given credit where credit was due in previous installments; very explicitly not merely criticizing the Linux-centric ecosystem. However, if the culture of free software replaces exploitation by data collection and malicious advertising with exploitation by demands of charity and burned out volunteers, maybe it's not as much of an improvement as it is touted to be after all.
(DIR) Post #AvWH4v9WFzC9wo5FaK by hopeless@mas.to
2025-06-26T10:23:39Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@asie @fireborn Your reply seems completely unrelated to what I posted... my point is that the OP cannot say how awful it is be treated as he described, while attacking his correspondent in exactly the same way.They should pick a position, either it is to be denounced to act like that towards others; or, the OP is right to act like that towards his "contributor".If it's OK to burn people, no point to the post. If not OK to burn people, OP shouldn't burn this guy.
(DIR) Post #AvWH4wC2O6ntAuGm9I by asie@mk.asie.pl
2025-06-26T10:34:27.153Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@hopeless@mas.to @fireborn@dragonscave.space No, I'd say my reply is very much related, specifically the first sentence. My view is that what OP is doing is equal to "self-defense", which in practice often involves performing acts of offense. However, we as society understand them as defensive given context; in this case, the context is that the author of the article was attacked by a commenter and thus expects the right to be able to respond in the same manner.Similarly, if the author attacked "free software zealots" first using this kind of rhetoric, I would consider that unreasonable, but that's not what happened here.
(DIR) Post #AvWI4CJp31jgqt7cZs by asie@mk.asie.pl
2025-06-26T10:45:35.424Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@hopeless@mas.to @fireborn@dragonscave.spaceNo, I'd say my reply is related, specifically the first sentence.To put it in more direct terms, my view is that what OP is doing is equal to "self-defense", which in practice often involves performing acts of offense! However, we as society tend towards understanding them as defensive in context; in this case, the context being that the author of the article was attacked by a commenter and thus expects the right to be able to respond in the same manner, using the same rhetorical tools. The tone has been set, after all.Of course, this doesn't change the fact that this is a terrible way to be treated, because it is. However, whether it's justifiable in one case or another is a matter of personal opinion, and I think OP's response to the comment is at least somewhat justifiable in context.Also, I question the premise of there being "no point to the post" if it's "OK to burn people", given the author's entire blog is essentially airing out personal grievances with the state of accessibility in the Linux ecosystem. If the author gets something out of it, even a sense of catharsis, that's clearly a point in and out of itself. Personal blogs are not products and they should, ideally, not become products.
(DIR) Post #AvWLff3DU7qqXYuUka by SuperDicq@minidisc.tokyo
2025-06-26T11:26:04.528Z
3 likes, 0 repeats
@fireborn@dragonscave.space As someone who is a GNU poster and does care about using the proper naming scheme like saying "free software" instead of "open source", even I gotta say this specific poster is an idiot.I don't like gatekeeping and I would absolutely never say that a feature being broken and stuff being hard to use is a good thing. I wish everyone in the world used exclusively free software.
(DIR) Post #AvWM6tTTxxqF5qBJ2m by SuperDicq@minidisc.tokyo
2025-06-26T11:30:59.080Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@fireborn@dragonscave.space Like actually both ideas about why stuff sucks are kinda wrong. Like it's neither that developers are being exclusionary nor is it that things suck on purpose because we like to challenge the user.Usually the reason is more something along the lines of, either nobody has reported the issue yet, or nobody has spent any time on fixing it yet.
(DIR) Post #AvY2MCpIgm4oglKY7s by hopeless@mas.to
2025-06-27T06:30:38Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@asie @fireborn If OP really believed that burning others for his catharsis is normal and okay, then he is not in a position to write a rage-article blaming others for helping themselves to some catharsis at his expense.Having been mainly on the getting burned side of this (including on LKML) I think if we can recognize it is bad, we should try to not increase the amount of it in the world. Conversely if we understand kindness is good, we can strive to increase the amount of that.
(DIR) Post #AvY2MDSeKTYIenjySW by asie@mk.asie.pl
2025-06-27T06:52:38.630Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@hopeless@mas.to @fireborn@dragonscave.space As someone who grew up in a Catholic country, the idea of non-violent resistance and opposition strikes me as a rather Christian position. However, even Jesus sometimes saw it fit to turn tables - to use violent opposition when the importance of the cause deemed it justified.So let's backtrack a little. The original commenter called OP, in response to the author's fairly valid criticism of the Linux ecosystem's approach to accessibility that I have been following, and I quote: "lazy", "allergic to learning", "mad", "begging" and "[not] smart enough". Those are just the direct insults. How many other people has the commenter described in this manner, we will never know, however experience tells me that zealots generally don't stop at just one person. As such, I think it's reasonable for me to assume that the commenter, and people like the commenter, have created a lot of burning and rage in their own wake.I personally know people who gave up on ideas of software liberty and the Linux ecosystem because they were tired of this constant exchange of "you're just using it wrong!" or "freedom is more important than usability!" or the like - it's reminiscent of Apple zealots, and not in a good way. I know a lot of people who gave up on Linux because they were flamed for their choice of distribution, or their choice of graphics card manufacturer. This is not something that happened this one time only. It feels like a fairly universal, shared experience, and I highly encourage you to ask around for people who have faced it as well.I agree with you that increasing the amount of kindness in the world is a noble goal. However, we must always mind a kind of paradox of intolerance: by allowing people who insult others by calling them "lazy" and "mad" in response to "this tool doesn't work for me because I am disabled", we reduce the number of people who want to use Linux, we increase the number of people who are burned, we decrease the amount of kindness in the world.To increase the amount of kindness, as you preach, such people must be told that they will either become more kind themselves, or that - for the good of the collective, for the good of that net amount of kindness - they must leave said collective.Could this have been done in a more noble way? Yes. But I'm not surprised someone who has heard the same insults and the same narrative for over a decade from dozens of people has had enough, and I do not blame the author for snapping and finally lashing out, in a sense, from one example to everyone who acts in such a disrespectful manner.