Using older OSes and older programs to avoid slop
This started out as a draft around the start of this month, but when writing an "expanded" version of my Mastodon post I began to reiterate the same points so I said, fuck it, might as well just split my draft into two separate posts.
This is one of them. The other one will be up in a few moments… or hours? I don't know, heh.
Eternal Sloptember
I've been following the Open Slopware document per Drew DeVault's post on rsync. If you aren't aware of this, it keeps track of which FOSS programs have began to accept or even embrace AI-generated code.
I don't like that it's not just Vim, KeePassXC, and rsync, but also ImageMagick, VLC, mpv, Jellyfin, curl, Godot, Calibre, Gitea, GitLab, Bluesky, PeerTube, Mastodon, Lemmy, Lutris, etc.
tmux, plan9port, Heroic Games Launcher, LLVM, VirtualBox, maybe Nix.
The worst for me were whole operating systems accepting AI-generated commits, such as the Linux kernel, FreeBSD, GNU Hurd, ReactOS, and even FreeDOS (even programs for 80s/90s hardware isn't safe).
To explain why this is such a big deal, a lot of people (including me) are skeptical of AI, and want to avoid it however possible, but this makes it harder because it feels like it's being shoved down my throat. Use whatever analogy you want. I've considered low background steel, AI "veganism", even asbestos. But the biggest is that modern AI is a product of capitalism, pushed without ethical consideration by larger companies, and I want to avoid that shit.
Older operating systems
Okay, so my first proposal. I think the core system of every OS should be free of AI. I'm mostly referring to kernel and userspace applications, but I've also seen Lubuntu and Nobara, unfortunately, include AI-generated wallpapers, or projects like KOReader use AI-generated images for releases.
I've been looking into this a bit, and I think older operating systems are a good option, but some may disagree (I'll get into this near the end of this section), and much like internet privacy, it can be a compromise depending on how far back you wanna go. Maybe an OS predating the 2025 winter holidays when Claude Code exploded, November 2022 when ChatGPT was released, October 2021 when GitHub Copilot was first released, or May 2020 when GPT-3 was first published.
Fortunately, older versions of, say, Debian, have a "frozen in time" archive of packages for each older version used. This may also apply to derivatives like Devuan and Ubuntu, as well as Alpine, CentOS, Fedora, Slackware, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and, with a bit of extra work (for finding the original sources?), NetBSD
But, unfortunately, it's often been claimed that running older software is a security risk waiting to happen.
On one hand, I agree, and one should always exercise caution when running old software (a tool like Lynis could be one in your security arsenal), and the older you go, the more screwed you are by possible RCEs.
On another hand, I also disagree. I personally believe most security issues are a result of PEBKAC and really involve how well the administrator knows their system. Arch Linux has a very lengthy page on security practices that apply to OSes. Others include Slackware and Gentoo. And for me, a big part of security is the attack surface, which is drastically reduced if you don't have 200 services running and stick to minimal software (imo modern web browsers are an overengineered security nightmare).
Older applications
Second of all, I can hoard older versions of software thanks to sites that still host them. Not all source code will compile, but there's a very high chance a Windows binary will be available that can run under WINE (though native performance is only expected on x86 architectures, where you'd have to use an emulator like qemu or box86 otherwise). If I'm unhappy about modern Anki, for instance, I can still run 2.0.52 if I really wanted to. If I'm unhappy about Blender, they too still provide older versions.
I've been able to do this as on as far back as my laptop, Omoikane (2004), running Slackware 13.37 (2011), after compiling WINE 2.14 (2017), though it relies on the program to be compiled without SSE2 due to the older CPU.
This also goes both ways! If I want new software, I can set up a container (Distrobox? uhh… Flatpak? shudders), chroot, virtual machine, or emulator. I've been thinking SSH forwarding could make the programs appear natively on the system.
#ai #slop #linux #debian #retrocomputing #rant #ramble
Kylie Neko
PRoe
Stefanos
Kévin
Joel 
jetsetruri
thecasualrambler
