just met Jan Wildeboer at #evn #zvartnots #airport w/@{անկապ ; ach94er@spyurk.am}. he’s a #redhat guy. #free-software evangelist. we are really excited to have him at our event.
already discussed #wayland vs #xorg and other political and technical questions. (: i’ve heard some very interesting stories.
#barcampevn17 #barcampevn #yerevan
@{Antranig Vartanian ; antranigv@spyurk.am}, i guess you might enjoy some debates with him. (: @{utopianlab* ; utopeanlab@spyurk.am} he’s Dutch, you know. (:
We all have seen those tables, which explain which free software can be a replacement for proprietary software.
When I was installing GNU/Linux to my friends, I was trying not to tell them - “this is replacement of that”, but show them some features that they did not even know about, something that exists only in GNU/Linux world.
I think, it’s not a very good sign, when we have many free software projects that tend to implement the same product as proprietary project.
In that case, it means that innovation first happens in proprietary world, then we try to copy and implement it, to not fall far behind. And very often our implementations are not good enough.
We need more “authentic” free projects, and let the proprietary software try to copy/implement it. In that case they will fall behind.
I think it’s not a coincidence that innovative ideas happen in proprietary thinking brains. This is because they think “what new thing can we do in order to earn?”. And we are too busy implementing free analogues of that proprietary software, often not good as original.
May be that’s because we are not used to think innovative enough. We ourselves tend to think more in terms of “repeating”, instead of “innovating”.
Sorry if I hurt your feelings. - may be I need to put it under every post I write.
#free_software #free-software #softwarelibre #proprietary_software #linux #gnu #software #innovation
apparently today software in order to be competitive, must be not only good, but also free and / or open.
software for software developers.
microsoft and apple probably got wind of that, and opening c# and swift compilers followed.
however, developers differ from the “regular user” and they let’s say developed and obtained more needs than they realized ten years ago.
will come a day, when this “regular user” will have a need to use free and/or open software, therefore software producers in order to be more competitive will have to free/open their software? i don’t know. i don’t know.
i don’t know.
#free-software #free_software #need #market #economy #competition #c_sharp #swift #microsoft #apple #freedom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIlJ3YR6TYs
#rms #free-software #free_software #lawrence_lessig #lessig #freedom
in the wake of this post and comments.
i accept that free software is often far behind it’s proprietary analogues. we, the society must learn to not take it for granted.
we must pay to the creators to support their work. we must hire developers around us to contribute our desired patches. we must set up bounties for necessary features.
thus we will encourage development of free software.
because free doesn’t mean free-ware, it’s not as free beer but as free speech.
software requires investments like tree requires water.
#free_software #free-software #libresoftware #open-source #open_source #freeware #development #investment #bounty #software #freedom
i have an idea: almost any software will eventually become free, because otherwise there would appear an analogue of that software which is free, and the first won’t survive competition with the second.
because free has an important property/quality - it’s free. and market will choose free software, it would prefer to pay for the free alternative and/or it’s support.
btw, this is about development, about progress, thanks to entrepreneurship and fair competition.
i would also like to add - free software is a way to measure democracy: if it exists in country, if it develops, it means that laws about equal possibilities to make business indeed work. moreover, if authorities choose free software over proprietary, it means that they are less corrupted, less dependent on already existing corporations that sell proprietary software. again, this means it is more about equal opportunities and working law and court, about society where companies must compete by qualities of their production, not by using law, authorities, brute force.
of course this is not binary, but scalar. countries have some value of democracy, it’s not true or false, it’s more or less.
and once the free software idea appeared, it’ll inevitably win. #free-software #free_software #democracy #market #law #court #entrepreneurship #competition
first time i have browsed f-droid store, apprx a year ago, it contained less software that maemo repositories. today i also i think that there is more useful free software for maemo than for android.
and that, i suppose, characterizes maemo and android free software communities.
#maemo #android #f-droid #free-software
Why I’m Saying Goodbye to Apple, Google and Microsoft
I’m putting more trust in communities than corporations
https://medium.com/backchannel/why-i-m-saying-goodbye-to-apple-google-and-microsoft-78af12071bd
via @{dolphin ; dolphin@spyurk.am}
#apple #google #microsoft #gnu #linux #cyanogenmod #free-software #freedom #software #communities #corporations
it is possible to download chromium (not chrome!) build for android here, or compile it yourself.
#android #chromium #chrome #google #free-software
competition is good. we can see it even by considering free projects: how firefox improved because of chrome/chomium and how gcc improved because of llvm.
btw, did you know about -fsanitze flag which first appeared in llvm and now in gcc? very useful!
#sanitize #gcc #llvm #competition #market #firefox #chrome #chromium #free-software #improvement
Just contributed my mediawiki ConfirmEdit extension patch. It allows to generate captchas with Unicode characters. Let’s see if it gets accepted. I don’t know python, just somehow managed to fix the source.
https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/113122/
#mediawiki #patch #contribution #extension #confirmedit #unicode #utf-8 #captcha #python #source #free-software
#fosdem #brussels #photo #openpandora #gta-04 #openmoko #openphoenux #qtmoko #neo900 #free-hardware #free-software #dragonbox-pyra #pyra #dragonbox #games #computing #freedom
http://www.openphoenux.org/events/fosdem2014/images.php
new mplayer fork, accepts youtube links to play (:
#mplayer #mpv #youtube #software #free-software #freedom
First small steps toward free GSM firmware http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2013-October/069010.html This thread is worth to check out. Also this comment http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2013-October/069022.html
#freedom #free-software #floss #gsm #firmware #gta-02 #gta-0x #gta-04 #openmoko #gsm-ti-agps #ti #free-hardwore #open-hardware #csd #gprs #eminent-domain
We are working on a 3.12-kernel for optimal Replicant 4.x support<br>
<br>
But like Rome it won't be built in one day :) And they did have slaves they could force to do something... <br>
<br>
Fortunately, we don't need slaves any more, just ingenious contributors :) <br>
http://lists.goldelico.com/pipermail/gta04-owner/2013-September/005021.html
#gta04 #gta-04 #openmoko #replicant #rome #slaves #contributors #linux #kernel #free-software #floss
der OpenPhoenux-Hard-Software-Workshop ist eine jährlich Veranstaltung bei der sich Interessierte treffen und sich rund um Offene Software und Hardware auszutauschen.
Über ein Wochenende hinweg wird es mehrere Vorträge und Workshops geben. Den Inhalt der Vorträge und Veranstaltung könnt Ihr im Voraus mitbestimmen und Vorschläge machen. Auch könnt Ihr selbst Vorträge einreichen oder eure Projekte vorstellen.
#openmoko #openphoenux #software #hardware #free-software #shr #arduino #openpandora #gta-04 #ben-nanonote #nanonote #copyleft #freerunner #beagleboard #shr #qtmoko #milkymist #fso
this is something like #wine, called #maloader, and runs #ios apps on #linux
https://github.com/shinh/maloader
I am more interested in a way of compiling #free-software written for ios/macosx on gnu/linux. we have #gnustep, but it’s probably far not enough.
I believe this video is via @{Chris ; teslas_moustache@diasp.org} http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP8CNp-vksc
#rms #stallman #freedom #ethics #ubuntu #gnu #linux #free-software #privacy #spyware
for me it comes down to human rights
i think we have the right to know, if we choose, exactly what the technology is doing and how
so closed systems like windows and mac, i feel they abuse my rights and insult my intelligence
i give many thanks to the creators of open source operating systems and applications, without them i may not even be aware that i have rights :)
by @{aj@diapod.net ; aj@diapod.net} https://spyurk.am/posts/122958
#rights #human-rights #freedom #free-software #windows #apple #macos #abuse
#Opera moves to the #WebKit #rendering engine The move causes observers to #worry about the diminishing #diversity of #Web rendering engines
www.infoworld.com/d/application-development/opera-moves-the-webkit-rendering-engine-212793
#browser #internet #html #html5 #www #alternative #choice #competition #market #presto #monoculture #free-software #software
#rms #freedom #democracy #privacy #interview #drm #obedience #free-software #surveillance http://www.newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2012/12/05/richard-stallman-interview/
Q Tell me about these malicious features.
There are three kinds: those that spy on the user, those that restrict the user, and back doors. Windows has all three. Microsoft can install software changes without asking permission. Flash Player has malicious features, as do most mobile phones.
‘Any change in the way protest is done is an opportunity for governments to criminalize it.’
Digital handcuffs are the most common malicious features. They restrict what you can do with the data in your own computer. Apple certainly has the digital handcuffs that are the tightest in history. The i-things, well, people found two spy features and Apple says it removed them and there might be more
When people don’t know about this issue they choose based on immediate convenience and nothing else. And therefore they can be herded into giving up their freedom by a combination of convenient features, pressure from institutions and the network effect. That’s why I focus now on spreading the awareness of the philosophy of free software and the issue of freedom that we’re fighting for. Because if you have some courage and you recognize the harm that they are doing, you can resist.
Q What do you think about the actions by hactivists Anonymous in defence of internet freedoms?
Well, their primary activity consists of a network protest where people send lots of request to a website. It’s the virtual equivalent to having a protest on the street in front of their office.
This is simply democracy. But we live in an age where governments that actually work for the banksters and other major businesses are trying to criminalize all forms of popular political activity. They look for clever ways to punish protests such as besieging protesters for hours. So any change in the way protest is done is an opportunity for them to criminalize it. If people used to protest in the street and now it’s in the network, well they can prohibit protesting in the network and call it an attack.
libvlc (#vlc player engine) changed it’s license from #gpl to #lgpl. http://www.videolan.org/press/lgpl.html http://www.jbkempf.com/blog/post/2012/I-did-it This will allow to use libvlc in proprietary applications. I don’t think that’s a good idea. Moreover, there is an fsf paper about why not use lgpl for you library:
Proprietary software developers have the advantage of money; free software developers need to make advantages for each other. Using the ordinary GPL for a library gives free software developers an advantage over proprietary developers: a library that they can use, while proprietary developers cannot use it.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-not-lgpl.html #gpl #free-software #lgpl
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=1296041&postcount=15 more and more I feel that it is useless to think about such solutions. We try to bypass #aegis limitations, but why do we have them? Why don’t we choose #gta-04 board instead of #Nokia #N9? Because we need glamorous proprietary #swipe, and then we need to find a way to bypass #freedom limitations? It’s like spending our efforts on bypassing limitations instead of improving free systems. #harmattan #maemo #meego #free-software
I always use “bindist” USE flag in my #Gentoo installations. That’s why my #chromium was not able to play #h264 videos - this codec is used by #vimeo. H264 support also have been removed from #chrome and #mozilla #firefox won’t support it, as it is non-free. Also, binary builds of chromium in #Debion cannot be done with #h264 support because then those #binaries won’t be redistributable. And it seems the only way to watch #vimeo in #browser is to build non-redistributable #chromium yourself. Of course, Gentoo simplifies this task enormously. Also, this is yet another example of how #open-source differs from #free-software, obviously. I forgot to mention that #flash is not an option for me.
this feature is missing because you didnt implement it http://www.armtimes.com/29516 #ուստահրանտ #free-software #life #երկիրըերկիրչի #եեչ #ազատություն #ազատ-ծա
Eben Moglen: Why #Freedom of #Thought Requires #Free #Media and Why #Free-Media Require #Free-Software http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKOk4Y4inVY via freedomlog@wk3.org