Post B17JSCVMbLJjPx9VhI by sortius@infosec.exchange
(DIR) More posts by sortius@infosec.exchange
(DIR) Post #B17IzT9pbkr2fQNfN2 by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2025-12-10T20:40:15Z
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I don’t know if this is a sick burn (for FOSDEM) or an own goal.🤷♂️ https://pleroma.debian.social/objects/f49df30a-d65e-4195-833d-29b7481b3aba
(DIR) Post #B17JFizOVvRSOxFZ32 by siltaer@piaille.fr
2025-12-10T20:43:05Z
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@aral Ahhh, Free Software is not about Freedom…Well, well, well.
(DIR) Post #B17JKliXnWwUJKm1js by eldersea@expressional.social
2025-12-10T20:43:25Z
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@aral "Oh, my political project isn't political at all"-white dudes everywhere
(DIR) Post #B17JSCVMbLJjPx9VhI by sortius@infosec.exchange
2025-12-10T20:45:22Z
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@aral there's a reason I ran like the wind from open source communities.There's dudes like this everywhere in them. As far as I'm concerned, if you're not developing for human rights, you're developing for fascism
(DIR) Post #B17Jg2nRUfaTMUD3zs by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2025-12-10T20:47:52Z
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Because “Free and Open Source Software isn’t about freedom/privacy/human rights/democracy” is one helluva take.(And yes, you’re right, “open source” isn’t about any of those things. It’s just about the source being openly available. Not about protecting its openness or anything. It’s open as in “open for business.” But free (as in freedom) software/technology…? Well, I guess some of us would beg to differ.)Oh, and if you want a philosophy/movement that isn’t shy or apologetic about being about freedom/privacy/human rights/democracy, see Small Tech:https://small-tech.org/about/#small-technology#FOSDEM #openSource #freeSoftware #SmallTech #freedom #privacy #humanRights #democracy
(DIR) Post #B17JwcQylGREWVbdho by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2025-12-10T20:49:04Z
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@siltaer Free as in “not freedom”.
(DIR) Post #B17KJxun3v4BnzgNZA by siltaer@piaille.fr
2025-12-10T20:54:57Z
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@aral It must be the "other Free" like it was the "other private" in Mastodon confidentiality levels(remember ? the public one)
(DIR) Post #B17KVBfcGETneTw5Xk by mray@social.tchncs.de
2025-12-10T20:57:00Z
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@aral Silly you! "F" in FOSDEM stands for "Open Source". :ablobcatbongo:
(DIR) Post #B17KxZZQzfIPsya0G0 by schrotthaufen@mastodon.social
2025-12-10T21:02:10Z
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@aral Why do so many supposedly smart people think tech is not inherently political?
(DIR) Post #B17Mhhh1E8lKLrgipM by jrredho@mastodon.world
2025-12-10T21:21:36Z
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@aral A fair bit of your declaration seems like a straw man to me. I've always interpreted free to mean free of payment cost. Free of cost has never meant freedom in the free from tyranny sense.Open source? Well, open to acquire and scrutinize, etc. Also, are you saying there are no protections available for open source, that something like one of the GPLs doesn't protect the open source itself?
(DIR) Post #B17WwWknBDD4JH9zbk by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2025-12-10T23:17:14Z
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@aral Aral, I'm with you on nearly everything you post. But afaik FOSS has long been about access to code, and no more. "Free and open" parallels human freedom and openness but in the longstanding software "movement", no. But! it is absolutely taken as such by many people, and I'm one of them. But FOSS doesn't not automatically mean freedom as in human, very many tech folk are tech-first, and there that. This dissonance, this dilemma is deep if not wide. It makes conversations about the use of FOSS to oppress us very messy. We absolutely need a way to distinguish and state freedom as in human in software.
(DIR) Post #B17dy2Nhm2rGN01pRI by eruwero@ieji.de
2025-12-11T00:35:52Z
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@tomjennings @aral the free software movement was/is about freedom, but I agree that open source or FOSS doesn't necessarily mean it's about freedom.
(DIR) Post #B17jkqPfYmc5DA2W1I by mmu_man@m.g3l.org
2025-12-11T01:40:06Z
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@aral @siltaer IIRC it's been already complicated to get them to add the "F" to OSDEM at first, and it people had a hard time getting topics like legal and policy in… Which is also why some people started OFFDEM to address these.
(DIR) Post #B1AnXxqJbjJ5mSUqVU by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2025-12-12T13:06:39Z
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@freakazoid Why should they fire him? They agree with him.
(DIR) Post #B1Ano1BewQakmn8RPs by wouter@pleroma.debian.social
2025-12-12T12:16:30.466232Z
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@aral Don't know which part of "I don't speak for FOSDEM" is so difficult to understand, but you do you.Yes, Free Software is about politics. Which politics? Depends on who you ask. Some will say that freedom/privacy/human rights/democracy are part of that, but not everyone will, and that doesn't mean they're not part of the community.This is an important debate but I don't think one in which FOSDEM as an organization has an opinion, even though some of its members might.
(DIR) Post #B1Ano2IQojbSE5JMbw by wouter@pleroma.debian.social
2025-12-12T12:23:04.116020Z
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@aral My absolutely personal opinion in this debate: Open Source is about methodology, Free Software is about principles.The principles in question are that everyone should have the freedom to modify software so it does what they need it to do, rather than what the author of the software wanted it to do. This does often include freedom of expression, privacy, human rights and democracy as a side benefit, but they're not why I care about free software.
(DIR) Post #B1Ano3X0E2qw3Z8Vxg by wouter@pleroma.debian.social
2025-12-12T12:29:38.619185Z
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@aral Finally, on the specific subject of having Google as a sponsor, I have a personal opinion on that, but I'm not going to comment on that in public.
(DIR) Post #B1Ano4DteZAECbClou by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2025-12-12T13:09:30Z
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@wouter Darling, three whole posts when you could’ve just written “I’m privileged and thus apolitical.”
(DIR) Post #B1AnoASITwFRWzzM6C by wouter@pleroma.debian.social
2025-12-12T12:27:54.929102Z
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@aral It also means that if you want to modify some free software so it can, say, control your military equipment, then that does not put you outside of the free software community, even though the free software community might have a larger percentage of people of people who are also pacifists than the general population.But that's not an absolute, and to claim that free software is about human rights, privacy, or democracy is inaccurate, at best.
(DIR) Post #B1AoC8k4VHQBARjX72 by wouter@pleroma.debian.social
2025-12-12T13:11:48.792209Z
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@aral "I respectfully disagree with you, here's why" is absolutely not the same thing as "I'm apolitical", and it's rather arrogant (and, honestly, disgusting) of you to suggest otherwise.*plonk*
(DIR) Post #B1AoC9nIalb4QkFcmW by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2025-12-12T13:14:05Z
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@wouter 👋💩
(DIR) Post #B1B851RxDQe3bi8tlY by onepict@chaos.social
2025-12-12T16:56:42Z
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@aral well FOSDEM pretty much demonstrated their values last year.https://www.onepict.com/20250119-cobbles.htmlAbout that time they picked Jack Dorsey as a headliner.https://www.onepict.com/20250122-mirror.htmlI called for some transparency.https://www.onepict.com/20250206-mirror.htmlNo Dorsey, Matrix got to talk instead. Oh and no transparency.