Shamar @Shamar@qoto.org
Joined May 2019
Pinned toot
The vast, overwhelming majority of people saying "Linux" means the whole operating system just as the vast overwhelming majority of people saying "Windows" means the whole operating system.
There might be a tiny percentage of people who say "Linux" instead of "GNU/Linux" with a sort of inclusive intention (to not hurt the feelings of binaries that are not #GNU 🤣), but I'm pretty sure it doesn't reach 1% of all people using the term (or the OS).
So that's not a faulty assumption but a rather reasonable one.
Shamar
boosted
@tuxcrafting @roka @freemo
If you call our operating system “Linux”, that conveys a mistaken idea of the system’s origin, history, and purpose. If you call it “GNU/Linux,” that conveys (though not in detail) an accurate idea.
But does this matter? Is it important whether people know the system’s origin, history, and purpose? Yes, because people who forget history are often condemned to repeat it. The Free World that has developed around GNU/Linux is not secure; the problems that led us to develop GNU are not completely eradicated, and they threaten to come back. When I explain why it’s appropriate to call the operating system “GNU/Linux” rather than “Linux,” people sometimes respond this way:
"Granted that the GNU Project deserves credit for this work, is it really worth a fuss when people don’t give credit? Isn’t the important thing that the job was done, not who did it? You ought to relax, take pride in the job well done, and not worry about the credit."
This would be wise advice, if only the situation were like that—if the job were done and it were time to relax. If only that were true! But challenges abound, and this is no time to take the future for granted. Our community’s strength rests on commitment to freedom and cooperation. Using the name GNU/Linux is a way for people to remind themselves and inform others of these goals.
People who know they are using a system that came out of the GNU Project can see a direct relationship between themselves and GNU. They won’t automatically agree with our philosophy, but at least they will see a reason to think seriously about it. In contrast, people who consider themselves “Linux users,” and believe that the GNU Project “developed tools which proved to be useful in Linux,” typically perceive only an indirect relationship between GNU and themselves. They may just ignore the GNU philosophy when they come across it.
The GNU Project is idealistic, and anyone encouraging idealism today faces a great obstacle: the prevailing ideology encourages people to dismiss idealism as “impractical.” Our idealism has been extremely practical: it is the reason we have a free GNU/Linux operating system. People who love this system ought to know that it is our idealism made real.
If “the job” really were done, if there were nothing at stake except credit, perhaps it would be wiser to let the matter drop. But we are not in that position. To inspire people to do the work that needs to be done, we need to be recognized for what we have already done. Please help us, by calling the operating system GNU/Linux.
If you call our operating system “Linux”, that conveys a mistaken idea of the system’s origin, history, and purpose. If you call it “GNU/Linux,” that conveys (though not in detail) an accurate idea.
But does this matter? Is it important whether people know the system’s origin, history, and purpose? Yes, because people who forget history are often condemned to repeat it. The Free World that has developed around GNU/Linux is not secure; the problems that led us to develop GNU are not completely eradicated, and they threaten to come back. When I explain why it’s appropriate to call the operating system “GNU/Linux” rather than “Linux,” people sometimes respond this way:
"Granted that the GNU Project deserves credit for this work, is it really worth a fuss when people don’t give credit? Isn’t the important thing that the job was done, not who did it? You ought to relax, take pride in the job well done, and not worry about the credit."
This would be wise advice, if only the situation were like that—if the job were done and it were time to relax. If only that were true! But challenges abound, and this is no time to take the future for granted. Our community’s strength rests on commitment to freedom and cooperation. Using the name GNU/Linux is a way for people to remind themselves and inform others of these goals.
People who know they are using a system that came out of the GNU Project can see a direct relationship between themselves and GNU. They won’t automatically agree with our philosophy, but at least they will see a reason to think seriously about it. In contrast, people who consider themselves “Linux users,” and believe that the GNU Project “developed tools which proved to be useful in Linux,” typically perceive only an indirect relationship between GNU and themselves. They may just ignore the GNU philosophy when they come across it.
The GNU Project is idealistic, and anyone encouraging idealism today faces a great obstacle: the prevailing ideology encourages people to dismiss idealism as “impractical.” Our idealism has been extremely practical: it is the reason we have a free GNU/Linux operating system. People who love this system ought to know that it is our idealism made real.
If “the job” really were done, if there were nothing at stake except credit, perhaps it would be wiser to let the matter drop. But we are not in that position. To inspire people to do the work that needs to be done, we need to be recognized for what we have already done. Please help us, by calling the operating system GNU/Linux.
Shamar
boosted
Shamar
boosted
SecuROM DRM expiration makes games unplayable 9 years after release at https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/topic/4476-tron-evolution-securom-drm-expiration-makes-game-unplayable-9-years-after-release - discuss at https://freepo.st/freepost.cgi/post/ihpxty3695 #freepost
Shamar
boosted
Unreal. People in the federated timeline are debating whether or not to vote because “voting supports capitalism”. I do understand that there are a lot of anarchists on the fediverse, but not representing your own interests in the legal construct that you have to live under is, well, crazy. Otherwise, you end up looking like a “sovereign citizen” (for entertainment, look that up on YouTube) and no one takes you seriously.
Become informed and vote. Encourage others to do the same.
Shamar
boosted
Shamar
boosted
"Basic Category Theory" by Tom Leinster is the best intro to Category Theory, IMO. On top of that, you can get it for free legally on arxiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.09375
Shamar
boosted
Shamar
boosted
Better intuition for information theory at https://www.blackhc.net/blog/2019/better-intuition-for-information-theory/ - discuss at https://freepo.st/freepost.cgi/post/uq4pn0lfno #freepost
Shamar
boosted
To be fair: the developers of free software and decentralized services already do this. They build anyway, despite the critics who say “this will never be mainstream”.
Shamar
boosted
our network traffic is also encrypted with the highest standards!
randomTemp16919651761612547986.…
randomTemp16919651761612547986.…
Shamar
boosted
Security in Plan 9 (2002) at https://css.csail.mit.edu/6.858/2013/readings/plan9auth.pdf - discuss at https://freepo.st/freepost.cgi/post/bl5u0orn5j #freepost
Shamar
boosted
🇳🇱
A little diagram ive been tinkering with to show the relationship between the different types of Real Numbers.
Shamar
boosted
We promised to publish the hardware schematics when the #Librem5 shipped and we delivered: Hardware Schematics and X-ray Scans for Librem 5 Birch https://puri.sm/posts/a-different-kind-of-transparency/ #OpenHardware #Linux
Shamar
boosted
Listening for the third time to the amazing speech of @aral at the EU Parliament, this time looking at a better video which contains also his slides:
https://video.lqdn.fr/videos/watch/861c07f7-7e9b-4e64-9765-cf1de592c8a0
At minute 12:20 he rocks and says:
"You are acting as an unpaid Research and Development department for silicon valley. Because if a startup here succeeds, it gets bought by Google or Facebook. If it fails, we pick up the bill."
😍
Shamar
boosted
@Wolf480pl the unix philosophy is one tool to do one job extremely well. The average Linux distro uses systemd as its init system.
Systemd is the polar opposite of the unix philosophy.
Notable exceptions: Slackware and Gentoo. I'm sure other distros don't use systemd but this is outside the scope of my comment.
Systemd is the polar opposite of the unix philosophy.
Notable exceptions: Slackware and Gentoo. I'm sure other distros don't use systemd but this is outside the scope of my comment.
Shamar
boosted
What would it cost to store all 2018 phone calls in Norway? at http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_would_it_cost_to_store_all_2018_phone_calls_in_Norway_.html - discuss at https://freepo.st/freepost.cgi/post/knrbfndkn1 #freepost
Shamar
boosted
Library Socialism: a utopian vision of a sustaniable, luxuriant future of circulating abundance / Boing Boing https://boingboing.net/2019/11/24/usufruct-complementarity-irred.html
Shamar
boosted
ssb has a lot of things right, i just can't stand their javascript/electron bullshit.
more than that, i can't stand compiling leveldown and libsodium 11 times every time there's an update.
more than that, i can't stand compiling leveldown and libsodium 11 times every time there's an update.
Joined May 2019
