6 ms·
> a computer that can't access the internet is just a toy or a paperweight to them. which would be a thing unheard of if we were still in 1993. We aren't, and
by sqrt17 8y ago
> a computer that can't access the internet is just a toy or a paperweight to them.
which would be a thing unheard of if we were still in 1993. We aren't, and you find people happily using iOS or Android devices that do mostly web browsing and video watching and would functionally be a toy or a paperweight if you transported them back to 1993.
Computing has changed in the last 25 years. Paradoxically, more people are using FOSS than before while fewer would subscribe to the kind of Free Software purism (totalitarism?) that the FSF advocates. Windows running a (GNU/)Linux subsystem is a victory of Open Source, but a defeat for the Free Software movement.
Which brings us to
> if they align practically or philosophically with the FOSS movement
and I'd call this a ruse - the Open Source movement developed as a countercurrent to FSF's ideology around Free Software mostly in the shape of people that liked Free Software (both as in Freedom and as in Beer) as well as software licensed under more liberal licenses but did not see the idea of Copyleft as central to their enterprise. There is a FOSS movement, replete with sympathisers and drama and everything around it, but it's at best a strict superset of the Free Software movement that also contains people with non-FSF-compatible opinions.
- code_duck 8y agoIf you took an iOS or Android device back to 1993 with no internet, it would have a camera, photo editing capabilities, text editing (desktop publishing, with the right software), music synthesis and editing, a rich game platform, a guitar tuner, a music player, and so on. In short, everything we used computers for back then and more, since phones are just mini-computers combined with cameras. That web browsing is available on top of all that local functionality, and is the most popular, shows why people use our phones 24/7. But I’m not sure how this is related to a desktop OS in 2019 that can’t access the internet. Sure, a modern GNU/Linux desktop system would have been amazing in 1993 with no internet too.
- swiftcoder 8y agoIt has significantly fewer of those things if you don't have wifi access to download them from the store to begin with. Since software doesn't come on floppy disks anymore...
- walterbell 8y agoiOS devices can connect to wired ethernet.
- code_duck 8y agoand then bridge space-time to connect to the App Store from 1993? If we’re going to go that far we could assume a 28k modem peripheral. If we had iPod Touches in the 90s before widespread internet, software could be distributed by USB drives (Lightning port drives I guess).
- code_duck 8y agoI’m not sure how we’re supposed to complete the entire story because it also requires time travel or something. I assumed that we can assume that the necessary software was available, just not internet access.
- theamk 8y agoYou can load Android apps from microsd card, or via USB cable with ADB. No central server required, just a single file, like in the old times.