Returning to Free Software: A Guide
words.steveklabnik.com
words.steveklabnik.com
It's a trade-off. One is not better than the other.
Software often has very strong lock-in effects - what you choose today may what you'll be stuck with for the next 5, 10, 20 years.
I'm bored by people pretending they've gone free just because they managed to replace OSX with some exotic gnu/linux distro (and with exotic I mean whatever which isn't mainstream)
And I'm bored by people upvothing posts like this
And I know someone will tell is me who is wrong (and boring) but listen, that is just your opinion, as this is mine. One thing isn't opinionable though, svbtle isn't free, so this post really isn't a good one, for me
And if your story is about "how you reinstalled some random gnu/linux", well that is a 20 years old story; what is an hacker (news reader) interested in? the .Xmodmap settings?
The fight for freedom today seems to me to have been moved for the great part somewhere else, on the webapps. How about we "return to freedom" by debating on how we get rid of all these non-free web applications?
btw, I meant to say "exotic"
I use and need a replacement for gmail, for todoist, for linkedin and probably a few others.
So what would an hacker, returning to freedom, suggest as replacement?
Isn't it better than just doing nothing? What are you planning to do to do any good? What do you think the average non-tech guy should do?
About me, I'm planning (and practicing) not to release any non-free code and also looking for alternatives to a few web apps which I'm still unable to replace (as per first post). That would be a much nicer topic to discuss for me.
Installing gnu/linux, no really. Again that is 20years old story.
I agree. There's a lot of avoidance of criticism for fear of "negativity" on HN. Not only does this hurt the (very positive) constructive criticism by regression-to-the-mean, it also causes us to lower our collective bar, from a "collection of smart people" into something more average.
The only non-free software I can't find a replacement for is a good sound/wave editor, something with an intuitive interface. Audacity's navigation controls are just terrible.
How you ask?
Build your own free apps. Publish. ??? Profit!
And speaking about practical solutions, I know of identi.ca and libre.fm , do you know of others?
Svbtle, while not free software, is on my domain, and Dustin will give a dump of my data at any time.
There is some level of irony, but this isn't about being a zealot. I have enough control over Svbtle for my needs. Blogging software is way different than my operating system.
That means gNewSense (or whatever else is FSF approved) and no proprietary drivers.
If you're going to umm and ahh about this then don't be misleading, just say you're moving to open source, not free software.
To be clear: this is a process. You can't do it all in one day. I have different priorities for different bits of software. Other than Ghostery, all the software on my machine is Free. Web services are a much trickier issue, and frankly, I'm more concerned about my usage of Gmail than I am Svbtle.
Every program must fulfill the following requirements:
The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0). The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2). The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
If you can listen to an MP3 on your machine, chances are it is using a licensed codec, breaking freedom 3. If anything more restrictive than GNU GPL is used for any of the hardware drivers then it is in breach of freedom 1!
EDIT: checking my sources.list, I do have an additional Crunchbang-specific source. So it's possible that has non-free software in it, I guess.
So, I'm wondering: are you using a Lemote? If so, why not? You seem quite... passionate about absolutism on this issue.
P.S. Don't forget to enable SELinux. :)
Edit: To be fair to your co-debater, by using open-source software with minor exceptions here and there (unFree firmware in the kernel, a smattering of non-Free software, patent-protected multimedia drivers, etc.) is in the mind of Free Software activists kind of like saying that you should have strong privacy rights, except perhaps for a little bit of metadata here and there, maybe some quibbling about analysis/capture just to make it easier on everyone. Why be a zealot about one of those but not about the other?
I personally believe people are free to choose what to be activists about but that's the perspective I see.
I'd suggest that either you: a) actually list free software alternatives in this post or b) remove any reference to free software at all and replace it with whatever you want (open source has a pretty flippant definition, so perhaps that would be the best option)
And no I don't use a Leemote, nor do I use Linux or any free software at all. However I do recognize the FSF and its beliefs and people who misrepresent them annoy me. Someone will come along and read your blog and believe that the set up really is Free Software, write a blog post of their own, probably skewing the definition even more. Where does is stop. Why does no-one do research anymore!
An awesome free-software webmail client is something that is sorely missing. sup or notmuch serve my needs well for a console e-mail client with good search/labels/conversations/etc., but most people are understandably going to want webmail. Many of the other google apps (calendar) need decent free software replacements too.
Roundcube[0] has a nice list of features and a decent UI. As we (an ISP) move our mail infrastructure from Windows to Linux, we intend to replace our current (proprietary) webmail client with Roundcube.
I haven't tried it but, in theory, you should even be able to use Roundcube as a front-end for Gmail. You'd have to host it yourself (unless you find a misconfigured installation somewhere that you can "hijack") and point it at Google's IMAP servers but it should work (although I'm not sure how well).
May be the single most depressing thing someone has ever used as a defense of their own freedom. Lay off the propaganda.
The company that makes Ghostery is cool but alas, it's nice to keep bloat away from the browser. I'd also recommend checking out Firefox Aurora or Nightly instead of Iceweasel.
I love Aurora; I'd been using it for the last few months as my primary browser on my Mac.
Even if my disk wore off faster, I'd still use full-disk encryption. What if laptop is lost or stolen with financial info in it?
The reason FDE breaks SSDs is that the implementation in LVM works at the block level. To send TRIM, the filesystem says "this block is empty, tell the controller" but depending on a thousand things, among which are cipher mode, cipher block size and other minutiae, LVM will invalidate the TRIM command. Without TRIM, SSDs deteriorate rather quickly.
Personally, I understand why FDE is needed but I'm of the opinion that selective encryption (with possible plausible deniability measures) is a much neater, if more difficult, approach.
I wiped WinXP (eXPloitable) off my hdd years ago, and haven't looked back ever since.
My only caveat is Netflix, but this is easily fixed by booting into a persistent Debian USB flash drive installation and running compholio's netflix-desktop.
As for those who complain about having to configure their unix-like systems, you can't really claim to be much of a "hacker" if configuring your own system is a task too onerous.
After all, if a moron such as myself can do it, genius such as yours should have absolutely no problem using unix-like systems.
Saying things like this hurts the quality of your post and may not be HN-worthy. The rest of your post was good enough to make your point.
(edit: formatting)
I'm in the same boat. Does anyone know a good tutorial to learn how to do this with Chef or Puppet? I don't have much of an interested in learning the tools, I just want to set it up and forget it (and occasionally update it).
Do people make their Chef/Puppet configuration files public (e.g. on GitHub) just like they do with their dotfiles?
I plan to do the same for my debian setups, but i am not there yet.
I'm just asking questions. I respect the switch. I've tried several times, but I still like OS X too much to dump it. I know freedom can come at a price, such as having a lessened user experience (in some cases). I really don't feel, and have not been shown, that Apple has been reading all my data and sending it to third parties. So, on the security aspect, I've no reason to get rid of the OS that I work on and that contributes heavily to my income. Now, I use an awful lot of free software but I just can't give up OS X at this time.
With software that is Free, I can be pretty damn sure that there isn't something that's sending something somewhere behind my back.
That said, it would not help _directly_ with the NSA situation. They're related because everyone was asking me to write this post up, because they care a lot more about privacy and information freedom in light of recent events. Taking control of my own computer is just one step, it's not 'foolproof' or 'secure' by any means.
If anything, the NSA situation just confirmed what I already knew: the executive branch doesn't give a care in the world as to the intent of the law, only the letter. As someone who has... generally unacceptable political views, and expresses them in front of a reasonably large audience on a regular basis, I constantly wonder about things like some of the other stories on the front page.
What is this "Chez" that OP is writing about?
I use and love Arch on my server, and was going to use it originally, but decided to give #! a go at the last minute.
Now more expensive than Apple product, while worse ... that requires actual effort!
I'm planning to do just the same with Linux, though I'm waiting for Haswell Zenbook.
EDIT: I hope I recall correctly on X1 having TN screen.
EDIT: Link to crouton: https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton
Also, I prefer Android (not free software, but at least more open) but the are a few apps on my iPad I really like so I am not giving away my iPad anytime soon.
Not free software? http://www.cyanogenmod.org
Even better would be able to buy a Google Nexus phone out of the box, that was all free.
(Note: I know it's the hardware manufacturers fault for not releasing power related drivers, but as if the end user cares!)
IMO its paramount to be running recent kernels, both for good battery life as well as compatibility with the latest hardware.
This looks like a post from years ago. I'm suspicious that this guy is just a windows apologist looking to spread FUD.
So yes, I'd like to have a good laptop, with a long battery life that supports open source/free software OSs but I'd also like some convenience too.
It's great if the HN community can config their OSes to get every watt out of it, but the truth is the lay man doesn't know, doesn't care and doesn't want to know how to do that...
How is this even relevant? We are the HN community, right? Where are these lay men? I don't think the OP as targeted at lay men.
I'm starting to think all this talk of "the end user doesn't care" or "the lay man doesn't want to know" are all just euphemisms for "I want it to be easier for me".
Which is fine, but then just admit it, instead of hiding behind a hypothetical end-user.
As you say it is question of drivers/hardware control so building up knowledge of the machines to avoid would help as the original article suggested. Older hardware usually means more support in GNU/Linux because there is time for the drivers to catch up.
I still think of OS X as an open platform since I can use entirely free software alongside Apple's amazing apps. I also still trust that the Mac's limited market share makes known backdoors less valuable to the powers that be, and more dangerous to Apple's reputation if discovered by anyone else.
Using iOS, on the other hand, necessarily waives the right to privately install software. That's one I won't give up.
I'll need a better free & open cloud sync solution, but I was using Dropbox on Linux anyway.
Secret service agencies have the ability to pose as whatever they want, even using "legit" certificates.
That's why I greatly prefer the WoT model to the CA model and refuse to use S/MIME in favor of OpenPGP.
That said, you could write down the checksums of the certificates you trust. Effectively you do trust checking by hand then.
That is why as European I find the whole PRISM discussion overblown as if people weren't aware secret service agencies have been doing this for years all over the world.
I think it is about third parties. If I can't trust the person I am communicating to, why would I want to tell this person any secrets?
> That is why as European I find the whole PRISM discussion overblown as if people weren't aware secret service agencies have been doing this for years all over the world.
I agree completely.
I'm under no illusions that I have great privacy soley because I installed GNU/Linux.
Of course SSL-type stuff is out. My guess is that many governments have their hands in the CA cookie jar for a long time now.
Besides the government the data that the companies collect is used to improve their software, so is that really bad? I agree I do not like being snooped on, but the government is the only body I really have any interest in because it is in the constitution not to snoop on me without cause, the company (usually) doesn't provide such assurances/promises.
A crunchbanger for 2+ years, recent convert to elementary: http://elementaryos.org , especially if you are looking for 'polish'. Do check it out once its out.
Thing is, it _does_ take away a lot of the "choice". It's very Mac influenced, and has a "convention over configuration" and "opinionated" view on how things should work.
This is not a bad thing, if it fits you (like it does for me!). However, a lot of hackers on here won't be keen, considering their opinions on Unity anyway ;)
Do give it a spin in a VM and see what you think, however!
Personally, I have a Samsung Series-5 ultrabook 13", running Ubuntu 13.04 - it's brilliant. I've used Linux as my daily on my laptops since 2005 :)
Let's let Richard explain it :
2) Visit the page (hopefully you still don't have Flash plugin in the first place or have completely extricated it from your system)
3) DownloadHelper icon will start animating. From the dropdown select your resolution and download.
4) The video format you have downloaded is patented and must be erased quickly. Therefore, download Handbrake ( http://handbrake.fr ) which is open source and convert it to a free format.
5) Run a disk eraser program to ensure that the deleted offending technologies are in fact deleted off your hard drive.
It's like saying that you're a vegetarian but you eat meat every third meal. You're just not a vegetarian.
For the record I don't even like free software but I find people who use it is a buzz word as annoying as kids who claim to 420 blaze everyday.
BTW. I'm not a fan of GPL because I feel that too is restrictive.
Bottom line, if the distro you want to use is not on this list: http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html
Chances are it is not free according to the four laws.
To keep freedom for the end user it is required to place restrictions on the distributor. To keep freedom for the distributor/author it is required to place restrictions on the end user.
So "Freedom" is in the eye of the beholder, and people forget that FSF and RMS are on a political, not an engineering mission, which requires licenses like GPL.
If you're just trying to do an open development process because such software "works better" then your view of freedom will never be the same as FSF's, and then licenses like BSD or even MsPL might be just fine.
A big list of possible rules are located at /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst
Changing alt+tab to ctrl+tab is easy with most window managers.
(I find the alt/command physical key much more ergonomic than the physical control key.)