Posts by ehashman@toot.cat
(DIR) Post #AMpBJYQ8Nub1UA3HkG by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-08-23T15:52:29Z
2 likes, 2 repeats
Here's a thought: self-hosting all technology, a common end goal of many software freedom enthusiasts, has nothing to do with freedom. Rather, it's the logical end of hyper-individualism applied to source code.
(DIR) Post #AMpBJfLQdnzWxau7sm by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-08-23T15:58:07Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Humans have lived and thrived in communities since time immemorial. We specialize because it allows us to scale; no one person can master everything that allows us to have a happy, healthy life.You may be able to self host a few pieces of software meaningful to you, but hosting your entire digital life by yourself? Well, we already recognize that we can't write all the code, or build all the hardware ourselves---that's why open source is important. So then why the fixation on trying to run everything ourselves?When software was far simpler in decades past, that might have been a feasible goal! But it hasn't been for years.
(DIR) Post #AMpD2YqljZhxnrXEI4 by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-08-23T16:19:08Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@xerz do you have proofs of concept or is this just what you envision?
(DIR) Post #AMpPFJhqY61I39D6sC by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-08-23T16:05:17Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
When I participated in approving the Cryptographic Autonomy License, the only FOSS license that provides users guarantees of data portability, I thought that this conversation might start to shift. That we'd recognize that running distributed systems at the scale of what users have come to expect cannot be performed by individuals, and that we needed to shift the conversation towards how we can protect users' digital autonomy and inherent rights without them needing to become systems administrators.Yet there has been no forward progress. I just can't associate myself with "software freedom" while it cares more about software, a tool, than the rights of people, the only reason the tool exists.
(DIR) Post #AMpPFKmUYJKVNqOKki by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-08-23T16:12:08Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Where are the radical software collectives self-hosting privacy-conscious for activists and the marginalized? Shout out to riseup, but that's nowhere near the experience you might get on a megacorp's service.The free software that exists isn't up to task. And if we wrote better options, people still can't run it alone. Where's that vision of digital autonomy? How do we get there, given the cost of labour?
(DIR) Post #AP93Pd1VEO6XUtiWWm by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-11-01T01:33:39Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
I'm seeing lots of interest in spinning up Mastodon servers, and that's awesome!Why not learn from the pros? @aurynn has written an excellent series of posts on cloudisland.nz's architecture:https://eiara.nz/posts/2020/Jun/10/designing-cloud-island/https://eiara.nz/posts/2020/Jun/24/on-planning-infrastructure/https://eiara.nz/posts/2020/Jul/02/openstack-specific-configuration-for-mastodon/
(DIR) Post #AP93Pgot7EOHGvqVQ8 by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-11-01T01:36:06Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
It's fun to spin up a $5/mo cloud node and try to roll your own, but https://masto.host/ offers plans at the $6/mo price range that will let you focus on using your instance rather than setting it up :) #MastoAdmin
(DIR) Post #APJ0RLudSkLYj7EcKm by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-11-05T16:04:25Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
Seeing people decrying the cultural intros and tips people have been posting for newcomers to fedi because "it doesn't scale" and "we need sustainable process" sounds like a technical solution in search of a social problem.Community and cultural norms are expressed by repetitive communication. And if you don't control the conversation, you are easily drowned out by those willing to talk over you.
(DIR) Post #AQNAzYuxpOWkmm8sSW by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-12-07T17:00:06Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Anyone comparing the philosophy of "open source" to "free software" without acknowledging the harmful stagnation and single-mindedness in the latter community is not making a thoughtful critique in the year 2022.
(DIR) Post #AQNAzZdz80XX2PCpdI by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-12-07T17:04:54Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
To the vast majority of people these terms do not mean different things. Semantically, free software and open source mean the same thing and agree on the same software licenses.The philosophical differences people attribute to "open source" vs. "free software" are usually a combination of development practices (dependent on the individual author) and arguing about copyleft licenses (even though the FSF agrees "permissive licenses" still make "free software").
(DIR) Post #AQNAzaGyn1jQzLRyPg by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-12-07T17:08:15Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
The FSF and free software movement have failed because they prioritized the hero worship of a single individual over the actual furthering of their ideology. They have had nothing new or useful to contribute to the public conversation in over a decade.So I can't believe people are still parroting "open source is about efficiency, free software is about ethics" or similar. Free software is about the ethics of one man, it's not a movement. They have spent all their energy alienating new blood.
(DIR) Post #AQNAzb1lz3A7KTLLLk by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-12-07T17:13:37Z
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If I cannot recommend your movement to anyone other than able-bodied cishet white dudes in western countries, and on top of that I have to caveat it with "it's prickly, hostile, and everyone does what Dear Leader says", then who the fuck is it for? That demographic is the *least* harmed by proprietary software.The manifestos of free software got me in the mindset of serving users and protecting fundamental rights. But the practice of free software is just like open source, with more hostility.
(DIR) Post #AQNAzbdhi1VHE75dTM by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-12-07T17:44:04Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
So let's drop the "open source vs. free software" debate please. What has it accomplished? Whether it's open source or free software, the software licensing movement alone is not enough to achieve any of these movements' stated goals.FOSS is necessary but not sufficient to ensure digital autonomy. https://techautonomy.org/
(DIR) Post #AQPRvHsNKlI4JIOm9I by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-12-08T21:37:17Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@neo how
(DIR) Post #AQPU6kecsRpaerYtI8 by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-12-08T22:01:02Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@neo then why does the FSF list permissive licenses as free software?
(DIR) Post #AQSImqEltUUs9zeTq4 by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-12-09T16:24:19Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Suiseiseki it's clear you are not convinced by anything I have to say here. That's fine; I can't imagine it's easy to consider this deeply when you've constructed your identity around free software "extremism". How long have you felt this way?What are you trying to convince *me* of? That I should care more about the inanimate tool, software, than how it affects the people using it?
(DIR) Post #AQVctUB2tO3GKJEbVg by ehashman@toot.cat
2022-12-11T17:21:00Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
The power button on my Pixel 4a seems to have broken, sigh. I can't use a phone that's wider than 68mm, my hands are too small. Does anyone have any experience with the Asus Zenphone 9? Otherwise I might be looking at an iPhone mini, nothing small and Android exists ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(DIR) Post #AVDqgxKwwOQXih6ZHM by ehashman@toot.cat
2023-05-01T19:58:26Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@cwebber @lathamgreen there are other cool people on the team building it too. I had no idea @bnewbold had left the IA to work on bluesky until I made an account!
(DIR) Post #AVFBQ9qjSTpLndlJfk by ehashman@toot.cat
2023-05-01T20:41:52Z
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@cwebber @lathamgreen @bnewbold Yeah, I am too. The in-group/out-group dynamics are really bothering me and stressing me out. Existing on either masto or bsky feels very "PICK A SIDE, THE OTHER SUCKS" and I just want to critique both and try to build the best thing possible that aligns with community values? And ultimately taking that position makes me feel like I'm personally unwelcome wherever I go. (I mean, I'm not even posting this from Mastodon! I'm on a glitchsoc server!) The whole thing just stings.
(DIR) Post #AWySXANNQsTfwaGUcK by ehashman@toot.cat
2023-06-23T05:20:00Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@twylo chad gadyaaaaaa chad gadya!