3 ms·

Yet there are enormous amounts of cooperation within free software. There are the various organisations like the GNOME foundation, the Free Software Foundation,

by hkt 3y ago

Yet there are enormous amounts of cooperation within free software. There are the various organisations like the GNOME foundation, the Free Software Foundation, Debian, and many more beside. Thousands of volunteers keep these things going to produce well integrated, usable software. Not to mention the common principles in most free software around interoperability and loose coupling. Apple and Microsoft (and the rest) have less to do on this, because they don't have to make their software nearly as generic. Microsoft famously fixed something in SimCity at the OS level. Google and Facebook don't have to worry about interoperability, which undoubtedly removes a lot of complexity for them. In some ways, free software has a greater burden to carry. The problem with usability in free software is not one of culture or cooperation, it is one of capital. The fact is, Apple and Microsoft have at this point invested hundreds of billions in finding the best engineers and designers around the world and paying them to focus on polishing their operating system. By comparison, Debian's (very impressive) 3500 or so developers, maintainers, and contributors, are almost exclusively volunteers and working at most part time on their chosen packages. If you want to see better free software, what I'd suggest to you and everyone else is this: Next time you want to buy a phone, pick something cheaper, and donate the difference to a developer of free software. If you're an iPhone user and you switch to a Fairphone 5, say, you can throw £600 at someone like Joey Hess, or just pick an organisation that makes good stuff and give it to them if you don't want to find a specific author. Let's remind ourselves that if 1000 people did this, it'd be £600k of funding to improve free software. Personally, I'd recommend a donation to the NLNet foundation: https://nlnet.nl/ https://nlnet.nl/ (plug for nlnet, they're currently taking proposals and will fund successful ones: https://nlnet.nl/news/2023/20230801-call.html https://nlnet.nl/news/2023/20230801-call.html )

edhelas 3y ago
NLNet is awesome ! :)
- hkt 3y ago
  edhelas! Movim is awesome too <3
hutzlibu 3y ago
So can you install gnu/linux on someones desktop and he can just use it on his own without the terminal? What do they do, when the next update tells them that some pgp keys are invalid? Free software works for devs and geeks, yes and I happen to be one of them. But for common people? Usually not very good, as they don't know the terminal and don't know config files. I know, because I tried to spread linux. It is hard work.
- orangeshark 3y ago
  Didn't have much of an issue when I installed Ubuntu on my dad's laptop with his limited computer experiences, didn't have many issues. Have you never encountered issues with Windows or MacOS? My experiences with Windows had many very frustrating experiences where I am sure won't be good either for common people.
- faiD9Eet 3y ago
  May I recommend you try Debian and its package `unattended-upgrades`. Besides, I recommend servicing the device every so often. People create weird failure modes (putting too many files onto the device, clicking at random in menus). I also recommend setting up a backup. As a figure of speech: Nobody is expected to service a car on his own. You'll get professional help every so often.
  - hutzlibu 3y ago
    "May I recommend you try Debian and its package `unattended-upgrades`" I will try that. "As a figure of speech: Nobody is expected to service a car on his own. You'll get professional help every so often." And also windows computers can have serious problems, but usually they are easier to solve for beginners, compared to when I try fix someones linux computer, that has not been updated in a while ..

by hkt 3y ago

edhelas 3y ago

NLNet is awesome ! :)

hkt 3y ago
edhelas! Movim is awesome too <3

hutzlibu 3y ago

So can you install gnu/linux on someones desktop and he can just use it on his own without the terminal? What do they do, when the next update tells them that some pgp keys are invalid? Free software works for devs and geeks, yes and I happen to be one of them. But for common people? Usually not very good, as they don't know the terminal and don't know config files. I know, because I tried to spread linux. It is hard work.

orangeshark 3y ago
Didn't have much of an issue when I installed Ubuntu on my dad's laptop with his limited computer experiences, didn't have many issues. Have you never encountered issues with Windows or MacOS? My experiences with Windows had many very frustrating experiences where I am sure won't be good either for common people.
faiD9Eet 3y ago
May I recommend you try Debian and its package `unattended-upgrades`. Besides, I recommend servicing the device every so often. People create weird failure modes (putting too many files onto the device, clicking at random in menus). I also recommend setting up a backup. As a figure of speech: Nobody is expected to service a car on his own. You'll get professional help every so often.
- hutzlibu 3y ago
  "May I recommend you try Debian and its package `unattended-upgrades`" I will try that. "As a figure of speech: Nobody is expected to service a car on his own. You'll get professional help every so often." And also windows computers can have serious problems, but usually they are easier to solve for beginners, compared to when I try fix someones linux computer, that has not been updated in a while ..