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Man Tries to Live an Open Source Life for a Year
- Devilboy 14y agoRMS does this every year
- possibilistic 14y agoInsightful point. I came here to say, "How is it going without the binary blobs?", but RMS certainly manages. Even as a Linux user, I doubt I could ever go completely FOSS. (Or that I would ever want to.)
- LukeShu 14y agoI went ~1 year using just one binary blob[1], and it's been about ~.5 years since I replaced the WiFi card that it was for, and have gone 100% FOSS. I'm extremely happy with Parabola GNU/Linux (one of the FSF endorsed distros), both as an OS, and as a community. [1] It was for the iwl3495, and it was actually the only blob on my system--I was manually patching a Linux-libre kernel to re-add that one blob.
- duaneb 14y agoI went OSS only for many years. It's not that hard if you use ethernet and don't need 3d acceleration. Could the average person do it? Definitely not.
- osener 14y agoI believe possibilistic was talking about stuff like BIOS firmwares rather than graphics drivers.
- zanny 14y agoThe OSS Radeon driver is more than sufficient nowadays for non-3d composting of windows and playback of video. Intels integrated gpu driver is also really good, to the point where you can play ~5 year old games on it just fine with a high end chip. I wonder how you would pull off OSS hard drive / ram / mobo / psu / etc. It would require that the design schematics and documentation are public. I assume many of them are, but some might not be, and it would be a pain to investigate open hardware.
- icebraining 14y agorms uses an open hardware MIPS netbook made in China. According to the Debian wiki, "It is the only laptop with a free BIOS (PMON) and wireless support that doesn't require binary blobs."
- swa14 14y ago>>open hardware MIPS netbook made in China More specificly, the Lemote Yeelong, which is not only made in China (like most hardware I guess), but also designed there. It's neat enough if you can find one, with actually a pretty decent keyboard (for a netbook; rms uses a seperate keyboard with his).
- Silhouette 14y agoHe also recommends not using mobile phones, and reads the web using wget. Software freedoms are all very well, but I don't think many people would consider regressing about 20 years technologically a price worth paying. While there are abuses in the worlds of business and government today that might (might) have been prevented if we had insisted on open code and/or open data all along, I am reasonably confident that the various power imbalances as we learn to cope with things like the Internet will have been corrected long before 2032. I don't know what the technological, social and political landscapes will look like by then, but if I were a betting man I'd go with something much more open in most respects than we have today but with a renewed emphasis on personal privacy when it matters.
- icebraining 14y agoRMS doesn't read the web using wget because it's the only free software way. It's not like there aren't free browsers, even in gNewSense.
- jiggy2011 14y agoIIRC he has a bot use wget then mail the page to him. He does this because it means that he will be able to read the page offline as he travels a lot. If you want fully open browsing you can always use IceWeazel: http://www.geticeweasel.org/ http://www.geticeweasel.org/
- Zigurd 14y agoConventional mobile phones have become (some say they always were) Big Brother tracking and surveillance devices. The amount of surveillance your are subject to reduces the value of mobile phones. For some people, reduces it so much as to make them, even when balanced against their usefulness, undesirable. As for regressing 20 years, how often are you able to pick up an incoming call right away? Your phone is 90% of the time a mini Internet tablet, not a portable version of a land-line phone. The privacy issue isn't just theoretical. There is a blacklist of more than 3000 activist construction workers maintained by police and UK companies. Could the people on that blacklist have kept themselves under the radar by paying closer attention to communications privacy?
- vacri 14y agoIf someone's doing an unusual thing, why does it matter that somone else has done it before?
- a3_nm 14y agoRMS is only concerned about the freedom of software on computers. He does not care as much about the freedom of object designs and artistic works.
- dsr_ 14y agoI suppose he'll have to start with defining which licenses he thinks are acceptable. CC-SA? Probably. CC-BY-NC-ND? Maybe? Maybe not? How about patents? Trademarks?
- softbuilder 14y agoToilet paper. Is there open source toilet paper? I don't think anyone is 3D printing that yet.
- knieveltech 14y agoPinecone?
- noonespecial 14y agoThe source for toilet paper is always available. You are free to compile your own. Personally, I prefer the "Charmin" distro. I think their current release is "squeeze".
- jancborchardt 14y agoGot you covered in terms of web apps: http://libreprojects.net http://libreprojects.net
- blancarro 14y agovery cool resource. Thanks. Any other lists like this, for instance for hardware or desktop apps? Or whatever else.
- icebraining 14y agoThere's the Free Software Directory: http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page
- cheap 14y ago... Grows a Beard.
- blancarro 14y agoYes, good point about RMS. Thinking about hosting a discussion about this. Seems like there's a lot of knowledge out there. Any interest? Or maybe there is already a forum for this. Pointers welcome.
- orangethirty 14y agoI don't go as far as strcitly using open source, but I've managed to improve my productivity with a lot of open source software. To me, the software I use is just well designed, quick, and hackable. The only non-open source software I still use is the one included with Ubuntu, the one in my cell phone (non-smartphone (runs java)), my appliances (Linux probably, not no source), and the code that runs in my cars computer. Could I survive without closed software? Not yet. Though I keep looking for ways to replace closed systems with open ones.
- mbell 14y agoFTA: "I'm not buying any proprietary or traditionally copyrighted products unless all other options are exhausted." I'm pretty baffled by his mention of copyright here. The linux kernel is 'open source' by most people's standards yet the copyrights are held by thousands of people. Living a modern life with only open source products is very doable, living with only products which have no copyright would be almost impossible
- mwilcox 14y agoKey word being traditionally
- mbell 14y agoWhat is that even supposed to mean?
- tomrod 14y agoWhatever he wants it to mean, apparently. I would reckon any Disney movies would fall under this, but not the Linux kernel. Unless we want to go really old school, before copyrights were filed. But "traditional" may not take that long to apply, I guess?
- dbecker 14y agoI don't really understand what it means for physical items like shoes to be open source in the sense that some software is. Users are already free to modify their shoes. And even if you had a video showing how the shoes were made, that isn't enough to replicate the shoes unless you have the machinery and dexterity to make shoes. He also claims he wants to be open source in "how I get around." What would it mean for walking to be open source or closed source? Is it "open source" to ride a bus?
- nrp 14y agoConsider that shoe piracy is actually pretty prevalent. You are free to make and modify shoes, but you are not free to sell copies (knockoffs, as they are commonly known) of existing closed source shoes.
- jsilence 14y agoActually you are free to sell an exact copy of shoes or other clothing als long as you don't copy the trademark logo. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_culture.html http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/johanna_blakley_lessons_fro...
- nrp 14y agoFascinating. Interesting that the courts deem fashion too utilitarian to copyright or patent, but purely utilitarian computer programs can be copyrighted and applications of algorithms can be patented.
- lotu 14y agoFashion has been around for a little bit longer the computer programs, the courts have had more of an opportunity to understand and make reasonable decisions about it. See what you think in 2112.
- daveasaurus 14y ago> I don't really understand what it means for physical items like shoes to be open source in the sense that some software is. Tangentially related, but despite the article's definition of open source: "It's definitely not just software", it's a peeve of mine nonetheless to hear the term "open source" applied in non-software/programming contexts. Especially with some of the examples you've pointed out: > He also claims he wants to be open source in "how I get around." What would it mean for walking to be open source or closed source? Is it "open source" to ride a bus? Not sure if I'm alone on this.
- vasco 14y ago"Open source life for a year" scroll Macbook.
- devgutt 14y agoThis is strange indeed. He provides some explanation in FAQ (but I don't buy it) *http://yearofopensource.net/faq/ http://yearofopensource.net/faq/
- gaving 14y agoYeah, your EFI won't be open source. More like "I used linux for a year"
- insertnickname 14y agoHe should buy one of those Lemote laptops Stallman uses.