If you see the AGPL licenses on my free and open source work and you think “damn you, I can’t use this to enrich myself or my corporation without sharing back what I’ve built on top of what you’ve freely shared and thus contribute to cultivating a healthy commons where others might enjoy the same benefits from my work that I want to obtain from yours” (a) you really have long-winded thoughts and (b) well, you already see the flaw in your reasoning.
(Remember this whenever anyone complains about ‘the viral nature of GPL’ or sings praises for (neo)’liberal’ licenses like MIT and BSD that enable corporations to partake of the free labour of others and enclose the commons.)
25 years ago today, Google was founded.
On the same day, I wiped Windows 98 off my computer, believing that Debian Linux (which I had been using for a while but still kept Windows on another partition) could do everything I had been doing with Windows until then.
Since that day, many installations of Linux, *BSD, MacOS have graced my computers, but Windows has remained, on a few occasions, only an occasional (unwelcome) guest.
In the spirit of a typical support group phrase, I can joyfully say:
'Hello, I'm Stefano, and I haven't been using Windows as my primary operating system for 25 years.'
The Unix timestamp will begin with 17 this Tuesday 14 November 2023 10:13:20 PM UTC. Here is how to see Unix time on your system. For #macos#freebsd#bsd run
date -ur 1700000000
Named after the ‘fastest swimming underwater penguin’ #Gentoo is built to fine-tune the performance of hardware, giving users more control over the efficiency of their device.
Thank you, Gentoo community for building a great #opensource resource that people benefit from all over the world! 🐧🎂
First of all, let me assure you that I truly appreciate your work. Releasing software under a free license is a gift to us all. It shows that you care about the widespread adoption of your project, and that's quite commendable. However, I have a humble request – please, pretty please, don't release it with the statement, "compiling it is so complex and full of dependencies that the way to use my program is 'docker compose up'."
By doing this, you're limiting access to your software for those who can't use Docker or those who can't/won't use Linux. It's almost like telling someone to click on 'Install.exe.' Surely, you can do better than that.
I trust you'll consider my request. Thanks again for your hard work!
No, I'm not logged into this PDP-11/70 from my Z80 "personal computer" kit to change my grade in Biology class. But I am logged into the BSD 2.11 Unix that is currently running on it using serial-to-telnet capability that understands Hayes-like modem commands.
I saw an ad for this CD set at a very low price in a computer magazine. I decided to give it a try, enticed by the low cost and this 'alternative solution to Windows', and in late 1996 I ordered this set.
When it arrived, I was fascinated (having never used a Unix or Unix-like system before) but a bit daunted by the lack of support for the main applications I knew. A few months later, though, I decided to give it another go and from that point, I never looked back. Whether it was Linux, one of the BSDs, or something similar (but Unix or Unix-like), I was not going back to systems like Windows.
My #ThrowbackThursday today is probably one of the most significant in my computing life.
When I used to write for @osnews in the early 2000s, I was a proponent of the BSD-like licenses, where a user could decide not to open source back their changes. I still believe in that freedom, but I don't believe in all people anymore: corporations now have reached total #enshittification, so now I'm a believer of the AGPL, the most extreme version of the GPL3. Everything should be as open as possible, and remain so. No exceptions.
We now understand why permissive #licensing is bad for #FOSS.
#Redis taught us why #GPL is important and #MIT, #Apache, #BSD etc allow corporations to enclose and steal our contributions.
#Israel's use of #Lavender for targeting in #Gaza, which may also use the code we donated to the commons, shows that we need to be more restrictive if we want to avoid assisting war crimes and probable #genocide.
I hope some lawyers are on this, and will help us add exclusions to protect from such use.
I've just finished reading "Relayd and Httpd mastery" by @mwl and it cemented my plan to move to #OpenBSD. https://test.sapka.me is already working and https://michal.sapka.me will soon follow. I like the Relayd + Httpd + acme-client setup much better than whatever #nginx tries to achieve by trying to be everything.
It's the first book of his I've read - "Absolute FreeBSD" and "Ed mastery" were also great. I don't know of any other indie tech writer but I dig his writing so much! The fact, that he may be the only writer treating #BSD (my recent love) seriously makes it even easier. After finishing "Relayd.." I've instantly bought his "Tarsnap mastery". Highly recommended!
I've been thinking about an adventure with #selfhosted#email and guess what? MWL is working on a book about it!
In the meantime (so: yesterday) I migrated my personal laptop from #FreeBSD to #OpenBSD. I had to force legacy UEFI and disable Nvidia but everything just works. WiFi, hibernation, even media keys. I am floored!
Client (a bit clumsy but positive and honest) calls: "Help! Just came back from lunch break and accidentally deleted all files on the file server!"
Me, unfazed: "Alright, besides you, who else worked on the file server during lunch break?"
Client: "No one, we were all away and I'm the first one back. Others will be back by 15:00"
Me, looking at the clock and noticing it's 14:30: "Okay, what time did you go to lunch?"
Client: "At 13:30. How long will it take to restore from the backup? Do you think we'll be able to work tomorrow?"
Me, without flinching as I type "zfs rollback *dataset-13:45-snapshot": "Done"
Client: "All the files reappeared!"
Me: "Thank #ZFS, #FreeBSD, and whoever set up automatic snapshots every 15 minutes."
I vividly remember when, less than 20 years ago, they used to ask me, "Why do you want to do this with Linux|Free|Open|NetBSD when it can be done with Windows? Everyone uses it!" Today, the question is similar but different: "Why do you want to do this on Free|Open|Net|DragonflyBSD when it can be done with Linux? Everyone uses Linux for this!"
The problem is precisely this: if everyone is doing it, do we really take it for granted that it's the best solution? I stay informed and have everything in production: all the BSDs and many Linux distributions, choosing the best tool each time, in my opinion, to achieve a result.
Why people always feel the need to conform to everyone and everything, and continue to decide what's better based on trends, personal beliefs, or social conventions, will forever remain a mystery to me.
The smallest things are always the ones that cause the biggest impact.
Let this be my public shout out and acknowledgement of the great work that the people behind #RUNBSD do to spread the word on #BSD
You have my uttermost respect and heartfelt gratefulness
It is your (and truly "yours only") altruistic and continued support that has enabled me to introduce dozens of people into the #BSD world. And I couldn't be more grateful for that!
Friends of #BSDCafe and the #Fediverse, for those who may not have heard, we recently lost Mike Karels - @karels - a truly significant figure in the history of our favorite operating systems. Among our BSD Cafe community, we have his niece - @kristin_charlotte
Let's show her family our warmth and gratitude for the role he played.