but this has just happened:
https://blog.lx.oliva.nom.br/2026-02-01-social-change-is-not-democratic.en.html
@lxo quite right.
But, I do question if atleast some initiatives aren't just hubris without understanding what people want (my pet peeve is me-too projects - GNU Sather?). Sure, there are many initiatives with ulterior motives, like proprietary software, and highlighting their inadvisable aspects is welcome. But implementations supporting the alternative always miss the train. Contrast that to the endurance of something like Emacs, which wasn't me-too material once it got ported to Unices.
@lxo a long-winded way of suggesting that constructive initiatives should start at where people were before destructive initiatives took hold. GNU seems to have done exactly that in the Lisp Machine times. What else has done that since?
GNU has met its initial goal of a complete freedom-respecting operating system (whether with software contributed explicitly to GNU, or free software developed independently that happens to work with GNU), enabling people to use computers in freedom. that was long ago, but the software still needs to be maintained, because users keep on relying on the software, and because needs evolve. besides the core operating system, new developments have taken place in applications. one of my recent favorites is GNU Jami.
nowadays, one of the greatest challenges was the change in the form factor of the most common computers, now dominated by a duopoly of heavily proprietary suppliers that lock the computers down and seek control over all the programs that users are allowed to install, to the point of prohibiting freedom-respecting software in their app stores. the empire struck back, and this has been a very hard nut to crack. I had a plan in 0G but fate laughed at my plans and made it clear it had different ones for my life.
@lxo mobile software is hostile to user moddability, and its hardware follows laptops in locking down the bootloader except tighter. Alternatives have no chance, unfortunately, even more so now that many websites refuse to remain websites on a mobile browser and push the app instead.
Neither GNU nor 0G can be expected to surmount these. Thankful even if just websites remain, with open laptops to access them on.
@lxo oh, GNU and 0G are definitely not hubris! It is disheartening to hear websites have already started going away. BTW, #DeltaChat and #MonoclesChat have a leg up at this with in-chat #WebXDC apps.
I still think 0G and GNU could provide us with a way out if people were to use their dissatisfaction with the growing pile of enshittified stuff to migrate en masse to an alternative that enabled them to run the stuff they want on hardware that's not locked-down and that doesn't track their every move; make and install and run and share apps of their choice like we did on PCs back in the day. it's the only way out AFAICT, but (i) we don't really have that kind of hardware available and affordable all over, and (ii) I see no evidence that people would even get to know about such an escape route. now, crossing subthreads, I don't think pursuing it is hubris either 😉
we can't count on websites remaining available. banking in Brazil has moved on, for one, and government is doing so. lots of "mandatory" communication platforms (WhatsApp, I'm looking at you, but thinking of Signal as well) are also (at least in part) locked to mobile devices. we're surrounded, and they know it.