------------------------------------------------------------------- +title: No free Software +date: Tue, 24 Sep 2024 16:20:13 +0200 +author: -fab- ------------------------------------------------------------------- _______ _____ \ \ ____ _/ ____\______ ____ ____ / | \ / _ \ \ __\\_ __ \_/ __ \_/ __ \ / | ( <_> ) | | | | \/\ ___/\ ___/ \____|__ /\____/ |__| |__| \___ >\___ > \/ \/ \/ _____ __ ___________/ ____\/ |___ _ _______ _______ ____ / ___/ _ \ __\\ __\ \/ \/ /\__ \\_ __ \_/ __ \ \___ ( <_> ) | | | \ / / __ \| | \/\ ___/ /____ >____/|__| |__| \/\_/ (____ /__| \___ > \/ \/ \/ <== What if there was no free software? ==> I've been thinking lately, what would be if there was no free / Open Source software. I mean for me privately not for the software ecosystem as a whole. I know, Big Tech uses Open Source as a tool for free (in the meaning 'without charge') development, but if there was no FOSS what would have happened to *me*? If you read my WWW/Gemlog/Gopher site, you know I'm a zealous computer nerd although I'm no professional. But if there was no FOSS, I believe there was no system that I could really hack on as I like so much on Linux or FreeBSD. There would only be systems which are designed to be used as intended by the manufacturer, and the users would be, to say it with Stallmans words '(ab)useds'. Every system, computer, laptop, smartphone and all the other things would only be opaque and obscure appliances, and the user would have no way to know what is really going on. It would be a privacy hell and all the users would be squeezed for information as much as possible, which they are already, but that would take it to a new level. And I think there would even be illegal data acquisition from the few big players and the government, because no one would know! With FOSS you have a way to escape these practices. But the main thing I love about my Artix Linux installs is their customizability and hackability. I have a highly adapted AwesomeWM setup in which I put in days/weeks of work. There would be no Vim/NeoVim as a hackable editor, no NeoMutt, no Emacs (although I don't use it) and probably no TUI applications at all. No free CLI tools like sed, grep or awk. No free programming languanges. Everything would be a proprietary app with lots of JavaScript and it's dependencies which all suck up your online habits each. There would be no Gopher or Gemini which I could hack on. All the good free software which does what *I* want and not some obscure evil corp, wouldn't be there! There would be a lot more other implications for me if there was no FLOSS. The world would be vastly different. Everything would be charged. And there would be no escape to the new software subscription model which now extends to everything not only software. But proprietary software makes this possible in the first place. But I was always very interested in digital things beginning with my C64 when I was 9 or 10 years old. Would I go with this alternate reality and take every spying appliance I need just for fun? Or would I opt-out and did "digital extraction" as Richard Stallman put it? I truly don't know. <== The FOSS community ==> So what I really want to say is a big, *big* THANK YOU to the Free and Open Source community and that there are people like Richard Stallman (although he's weird), Linus Torvalds and all the people I don't know, who did all this amazing work which I profit so much from privately, too. And thanks to solderpunk with his invention of the Gemini protocol and all the other community members who pointed me to the smolnet with all of it's homebrew software for Gemini/Gopher/Finger. I got only aware of the smolnet because the Gemini protocol got some coverage on the internet news. In fact, I knew about Gopher since the early internet, but I thought it's some obscure old protocol like FTP which nobody uses. Never would I've thought that I'll take part in this glorious community and all the small and easy tech, like I do now. And I love to hack on my scripts to easily publish to my services and build up my site. It was and is a very refreshing experience to go back to the roots! And even if the year of the Linux Desktop will never come, we all know it: FOSS won! <== Final words ==> So this is a "Thank you!" to all the people who allowed me to learn and tinker around with Free and Open Source software and extend my knowledge every day. All in all - Have fun! -fab-