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The mobile ecosystem is basically the world Stallman and his comrades-in-arms wanted to prevent. It did't come to reality on the PC, but sneaked in through the

The mobile ecosystem is basically the world Stallman and his comrades-in-arms wanted to prevent. It did't come to reality on the PC, but sneaked in through the backdoor with the advent of mobile devices. I have little hope that this can be undone, but we need to be prepared to nip these tendencies in the bud for the next paradigm shift.

pjmlp 2y ago
It is coming, PC Clones only happened due to IBM not being able to legally prevent it taking off. It is no accident that the laptops as desktop replacement are just as vertically integrated, most people not using laptops have NUCs and game consoles, and custom built PC towers are seldom seen outside hardcore PC gamers.
atoav 2y ago
Working with all major systems I have to say I don't have the feeling that the commercial OS is getting any better. If anything they are getting worse. What is getting better are the likes of KDE. Where a good decade ago running Linux still was a pain where it didn't work, nowadays it mostly just works, the System UIs are more usable, more customizable and in many cases better than any of the commercial OS for a while now (and yes, that includes MacOS). Android is a pain in the rear, IOS similarily so.
- pjmlp 2y ago
  I just returned a NUC, because no matter what I tried, the UEFI bios and the collection of distributions I tried didn't come to terms.
TZubiri 2y ago
And that's one of the strongest criticisms of Stallman's Free Software. Instead of providing alternatives, they are just against them. Of course they tried to provide alternatives, but they are still stuck 30 years behind, they haven't gotten to phones yet. During Covid they had issues getting videoconferences to work.
- globular-toast 2y ago
  They gave us a completely free version of Unix! What more do you want?! Do you even contribute to the FSF?
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    AT&T did that in first place, without the impediment to sell Bell Labs research and the Lions book, UNIX would never had been available for free to start with.
  - TZubiri 2y ago
    And they are still working on that. "but they are still stuck 30" What did I say?
- seba_dos1 2y ago
  > they haven't gotten to phones yet Huh? I've been happily using several GNU/Linux phones as my daily drivers for the past 16 years. FSF also supported Replicant, which isn't something I'm personally interested in but it's there.
  - senorsmile 2y ago
    Which devices and distros?
astrobe_ 2y ago
FSF's position is restrictive in the sense that it limits the choices you have. On non-mobile, while a lot of people agree with FSF's point of view, in practice they have to make exceptions. (There's the urban legend that you're always breaking some law even when you try your best not to; probably you're also always running some opaque firmware blob even when you try your best not to). I don't see mobile users making any compromise like this, unless a gigantic scandal happens.

pjmlp 2y ago

It is coming, PC Clones only happened due to IBM not being able to legally prevent it taking off. It is no accident that the laptops as desktop replacement are just as vertically integrated, most people not using laptops have NUCs and game consoles, and custom built PC towers are seldom seen outside hardcore PC gamers.

atoav 2y ago

Working with all major systems I have to say I don't have the feeling that the commercial OS is getting any better. If anything they are getting worse. What is getting better are the likes of KDE. Where a good decade ago running Linux still was a pain where it didn't work, nowadays it mostly just works, the System UIs are more usable, more customizable and in many cases better than any of the commercial OS for a while now (and yes, that includes MacOS). Android is a pain in the rear, IOS similarily so.

pjmlp 2y ago
I just returned a NUC, because no matter what I tried, the UEFI bios and the collection of distributions I tried didn't come to terms.

TZubiri 2y ago

And that's one of the strongest criticisms of Stallman's Free Software. Instead of providing alternatives, they are just against them. Of course they tried to provide alternatives, but they are still stuck 30 years behind, they haven't gotten to phones yet. During Covid they had issues getting videoconferences to work.

globular-toast 2y ago
They gave us a completely free version of Unix! What more do you want?! Do you even contribute to the FSF?
- pjmlp 2y ago
  AT&T did that in first place, without the impediment to sell Bell Labs research and the Lions book, UNIX would never had been available for free to start with.
- TZubiri 2y ago
  And they are still working on that. "but they are still stuck 30" What did I say?
seba_dos1 2y ago
> they haven't gotten to phones yet Huh? I've been happily using several GNU/Linux phones as my daily drivers for the past 16 years. FSF also supported Replicant, which isn't something I'm personally interested in but it's there.
- senorsmile 2y ago
  Which devices and distros?

astrobe_ 2y ago

FSF's position is restrictive in the sense that it limits the choices you have. On non-mobile, while a lot of people agree with FSF's point of view, in practice they have to make exceptions. (There's the urban legend that you're always breaking some law even when you try your best not to; probably you're also always running some opaque firmware blob even when you try your best not to). I don't see mobile users making any compromise like this, unless a gigantic scandal happens.