Aral BalkanJan 21, 2025

Nah, don’t worry, it’ll be ok. They’ve been sponsored by Google for years. Even Facebook at one point.

It’s open source… it’s about the source being open. It’s open as in “open for business”.

The “F” in FOSDEM is silent.

It’ll be fine…

https://ar.al/2019/01/11/i-was-wrong-about-google-and-facebook-theres-nothing-wrong-with-them-so-say-we-all/

#FOSDEM #FOSDEM25 #JackDorsey #billionaires #trillionDollarCorporations #institutionalCorruption #openSource #openForBusiness #BigTech #PR #Google #Facebook https://mastodon.cloud/@mfeilner/113859797648383354

I was wrong about Google and Facebook: there’s nothing wrong with them (so say we all)

It’s always difficult admitting you’re wrong. But sometimes, it’s exactly what you have to do in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. So, today, I admit that I was wrong about Google, Facebook, and surveillance capitalism in general being toxic for our human rights and democracy. You see, it simply cannot be true given how they are endorsed by some of the most well-respected groups and organisations in the world.

Aral Balkan
Show threadm0xEEJan 21, 2025

@aral
Well, if Aral has no problem using a laptop made by Apple running an OS made by Apple and building his web development kit on top of Node.js, for which V8 — a project headed by Google, is a hard dependency*, then there is indeed nothing wrong with them 😏

* — there were attempts to port it to other JS engines, but none stuck, all of them are abandoned, therefore Node is built on Google technology

Show threadYaya.Cout
@m0xee @aral Isn't GJS (used by GNOME extensions) based on Firefox ?
Jan 22, 2025 at 7:21amWeb
Show threadm0xEEJan 22, 2025

@yayacout
Not sure, could be. I was referring to Kitten, which depends on Node.js and Node in turn — on V8.
There were attempts to port it to SpiderMonkey: https://github.com/mozilla/spidernode
And ChakraCore (old Edge's JS engine): https://github.com/nodejs/node-chakracore
None came to fruition, so today the whole Node.js ecosystem is reliant on Google: if Google drops support for some platform or architecture, Node.js does it too — this is what has happened to Big Endian PowerPC.

@aral

GitHub - mozilla/spidernode: Node.js on top of SpiderMonkey

Node.js on top of SpiderMonkey. Contribute to mozilla/spidernode development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Show threadm0xEEJan 22, 2025
@aral
Man, I'm not trying to pick a fight with you, I was just following the sarcastic tone of your own article. You're free to use whatever you want, but you've ridiculed FSF for having their logo next to Google, not for *taking money*. And if we go full purism, you have a few sins of your own — that's it, come prepared!
Show threadm0xEEJan 22, 2025
@aral
Did he just… block me? 🤔 This is priceless coming from the one being outraged about his question being cut from the video — top-notch activism!
If we even call this "All or nothing! You aren't being radical enough!" approach activism. Did that "The Dems aren't any better than the GOP" thing go well? If you are allowing yourself the option to compromise — then everyone does!
God damn it, cannot believe this shit!
Show threadm0xEEJan 22, 2025
@aral
If that's the best *you* could do and only went only this far with your tech stack, what should the average person do — seeing you lumping smaller organisations together with true evil? "If the alternatives aren't much better then maybe Google isn't that bad?" — that would be their line of thinking, what good does this accomplish?
And yes, for stepping away from "big tech" Node is the worst pick — you aren't ceasing the means of production, Google remains at the helm!