Adderbox76

The full saying is “Free as in Speech, not Free as in Beer”

Basically the “Free” in free means that it’s free to do with as you please, modify, etc… But not free as in “here’s a free product…like getting a free beer”

I’m not really talking about development as simply programming. There are a lot of aspects that go into development, yes…programming is a big aspect.

But there’s also bug reporting (every user should know how to report bugs because it’s contributes to making the program better).

Heck, you can even download the documentation and give it a proof-read if you’re good with grammar and spot some errors if you don’t want to commit to helping to write it.

I know a lot of people who spend a lot of time in the various subs for the software, taking care to answer questions from other users who need help doing this or that. That again, is contributing.

Then there’s simply what we’re doing right now. Bringing attention to the projects online getting them more visibility.

Development of a successful FOSS app isn’t just about programming. And even small contributions count. If you can donate some coin, great! If you can’t, or don’t want to, there are a thousand other things that you can do to contribute to that apps community.

I emphasized the word community because that is exactly what it is. The ethos of Open Source; what makes it different than Propietary software, is that the users are an inherent part of the development process in ways both big and small. In propietary software, there is a distinct line between the developers and the users. Developers have multiple stakeholders of which the user base is certainly one, but also include advertisers, software makers, hardware makers, etc…

FOSS software, in contrast, is much more a communitee effort with the involvement of the community in the way of bug reports, literature, education and even simply championing the project because they don’t have millions of dollars in advertising budgets.

Sorry, I get a little passionate, so this is longer than I intended it to be.

But tl;dr, contributing isn’t just about money or just about programming. There’s a thousand ways big and small, and my issue isn’t with people not “paying” necessarily. But people who use it for free and don’t bother filing bug reports, don’t join the community online to help answer user questions, etc…

A good FOSS citizen should be an active part of the community. Or donate money to the project if they’d rather not.

This software is extensively free (as in beer)

No…it’s not. It’s free to download and to use, but the expectation that people contribute in exchange for using it is how FOSS has always worked.

That doesn’t necessarily mean monetary. But contributing can be helping with user guides, or making youtube tutorials, or even just extending the reach of the program to friends and family by talking about it.

There are many ways to contribute, and money is one. But the notion that Open Source software is “free as in beer” has never been correct. Users have an expectation to contribute…period.

Unfortunately, there has always been the issue that a not-insignificant percentage of users of FOSS software believe the FREE part means “free as in beer” and take umbrage when asked to contribute.

I’ve long been a proponent (and I know I’m in a minority) that has advocated for a shift in the marketing of FOSS applications from “donation based” to “value based”. Meaning that the expectation is that if you enjoy the software, you pay an amount that you believe is commensurate to your use. This is voluntarily of course…if you can’t pay, than please use it and enjoy it. But those who can pay, should pay…at least a little bit, to offset the costs for those who can’t.

It’s more or less that the wording of FOSS apps needs to change so that you are expected to contribute if you can.

Just my opinion. Like I said, I know I’m in the minority. Just not a fan of the percentage of users that has always existed that (falsely) think that asking for money for your project is somehow anathema to the Open Source ideal and whine whenever they’re asked to contribute.

Good god, why not just use Gnome?

Hard to pin a number on it, percentage-wise.

• Desktop and laptop are both running Linux.
• Chromebook wiped and running Linux.
• Most software, but definitely not all. Steam, Resolve being the two biggest non-foss items on my desktop, while my ex-Chromebook has a proprietary screenwriting program, as well as OnlyOffice instead of LibreOffice because I need much better Excel compatibility for work and LO still isn’t quite there for it.
• Phone android. But not entirely de-googled. Replaced drive with syncthing, keep with Joplin, photos, phone, and messenger with their Fossify equivalents and disabled the originals. Replaced gboard with heliboard, etc…

But can’t/won’t completely replace the OS yet because both google pay and android auto are essential to me and getting them working on most replacements is still a royal pain in the butt.

So let’s call it 80%, maybe a bit more?

It’s been a long time since I last installed Linux on a two hard-drive system, so take this advice as “likely not necessary, but will probably fix your issue”

The installer asks whether or not you want to “replace” the existing OS or install alongside. And if you’re fairly new to linux (like I was at the time) it can be tricky to see at a glance which hard-drive you want to install it to and which you don’t.

So to be doubly cautious and make sure that didn’t happen, I simply unplugged my secondary harddrive during the install so that the installer would automatically be reading the correct one. Then all I had to do was choose “replace” or “install alongside” without worrying about anything else.

The drawback to that was, once the install was complete and I re-attached my second drive, I had to configure it to auto-mount and do some work on that, but at least my computer was working.

If I’m being honest, So many little distros just come and go that I’ve stopped bothering to learn about any of them until they have enough support that I know the devs aren’t going to just vanish in six months.

rear fingerprint reader was peak and I don’t know why it went away.

with a rear reader I could grab my phone and it would be unlocked with an index finger before I’ve even lifted it to my face. it was all one smooth motion.

Now, I have to pull it out of my pocket, orient it correctly so my thumb can hit the correct part of the screen, half the time shake the phone or swipe up to wake up the screen to make the reader work consistently, then hold down my thumb for at least a second longer than I would have to with my rear reader.

dumbest so called “advancement” in years.

Yeah, not a high-end business.

You are incredibly naive.

That is very true. Good point.

Yes.

Anyone who says differently is confusing “necessity” with “efficiency”.

When I first started in Linux I rarely used the command line at all. But as time went on and I became more familiar, I found that there were some things that were simply faster to do in the command line.

I can’t think of a single “everyday regular user task” than needs the command line, tbh.

I was actually kind of blown away by the scale and verticality of the open world in Elex. It has some jank (as most AA games do), But surprisingly in the end, it actually honestly soured my feelings towards Bethesda games somewhat because in Elex, your choices matter far more.

It always annoyed me in Bethesda games that if you do one factions quest line, you can still go and do the other factions quest lines and no one ever mentions it. It doesn’t change the game whatsoever except the ultimate ending. In Starfield, for example, you can do the entire United Colonies Quest line, and then go join the freestar collective and literally nobody mentions it, or trys to stop you, or treats you literally any differently because you joined their erstwhile enemy. Each quest line is a separate game in itself. For example (spoilers for Starfield…) When you’re trying to get the Freestar Collective’s cooperation to get access to some data, if you’ve previously become a Freestar Ranger, that should have mattered to the story in some way. But nothing you do in a Bethesda game has any bearing on anything else that you do except in the most cursory of ways.

Elex doesn’t play by those rules. Once you join a faction, that’s it… And the other factions treat you very differently as a result, with different dialog and different options. None of this “essential character” garbage either. If you kill them, you’ll get a notice on screen that says ("x"s death will change the story moving forward…) and stuff like that. Sometime that change is immediate, and sometime it comes back to haunt you hours and hours later in a completely different quest line.

It’s also HARD because it doesn’t lock off areas until you’ve reached a certain level. You can go anywhere and do anything right from the beginning, but if you stumble upon an enemy that is twenty levels above you, tough luck. Often, getting to a quest requires going through those areas, which means early on, you’re not necessarily fighting all the time. You pick your battles and you pick when to sneak by at night and when to just run like hell.

It was honestly a very refreshing open world experience. And the world was extremely “vertical”. And by that I mean you could jump off a mountain and fall into a valley that’s about as deep down as some other game maps are wide, with absolutely no loading screen. Really impressive for a AA game. Can’t speak highly enough about it.

A couple of other one’s that I enjoy but not on the level of Elex is the Spider Software games, The Technomancer and Greedfall. Fun enough for what they are, but not nearly the same scope as Elex.

Mad Max get’s not nearly enough love either.

Neofetch reloaded. followed by neofetch revolutions.

I used Crucial brand in both my desktop and my laptop upgrades a few years ago (I don’t remember the exact model…mx500 maybe?) And I haven’t had a single issue.

Absolutely rock-solid.

there aren’t really any that use a different paradigm or concept

No offense meant, but how hard have you looked? Because different paradigms are everywhere. Niagara Launcher for one, also Olauncher, Before Launcher, etc…

I can’t imagine using my phone without it anymore.

I’ll give it a shot. I have always been a big fan of swipe to text. But lately the autocorrect options have been shit anyway. I don’t know if its Google to blame or if its Motorola that has too small of a side bezel causing my palms to create a fake swipe.

I’ve said for years that the very last power we have as consumers is the ability to turn off our internet and still be able to use our devices. That is my minimum expectation of any company.

Fridge needs an internet connection, fuck you. TV won’t work unless it’s connected to the internet, fuck you.

But most especially (and this is why I moved to Linux originally), computer needs to always be connected to the internet even if all I’m doing is opening an office program that has nothing to do online? Go fuck yourself.

The ability to unplug my ethernet cable and still be able to use 99% of my computer with the exception of email and a web browser is the absolutely most basic human right left to us.

The fact that “Dash to Dock” isn’t built in because Gnome is going all in on the ridiculous minimalist tablet like interface is seriously one of the things that makes me uninstall it after five minutes every time I’ve tried to give it a shot.

I’m running a desktop with two 32 inch monitors, not a frickin’ tablet. The reason traditional desktop interfaces have survived for so long is because they work, dammit. I shouldn’t have to click into an app drawer every time I want to run an often used app just because some developer thinks they should look like a tablet.

/end rant