Mastodawn

lizzy مثلية الله ☭

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i think at some point we need to recognize that the deliberate oversimplification of technology and our understanding of and interaction with it is an integral part of what keeps people dependent on tech corporations; that real software freedom is impossible without education and media literacy; and that labeling people who promote ways of using technology that enable & encourage actual comprehension and choice as "elitist" is an active attempt at keeping the general public in their dangerously uneducated state.

the easiest way to keep people subservient is to keep them dumb. knowledge is power; and we should have power over the tools that we spend the majority of our waking hours with instead of them having power over us.

RE: https://circumstances.run/users/davidgerard/statuses/115383414643559768

lizzy مثلية الله ☭

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i think one of the most harmful stereotypes here is "linux elitist who looks down at you for using proprietary software but doesn't offer help". if you ask them to, literally 99% of free software enthusiasts will gladly support you in your attempts at using more free software on your computer, and explain things, in detail, patiently. you can ask in one of the many online communities, ask a friend you know, or go to a local hackspace for help. nerds aren't scary, they love talking about their thing, stop listening to the corpo propaganda that tells you they are.

Haelwenn /элвэн/

@lizzy At the same time the vibe that FSF and GNU publicly gives is pretty much that "elitist nerd" image that's out of touch with people's needs and usability and would talk down on needing something else.

Luckily the FOSS community doesn't works like that except for few trolls.

lizzy مثلية الله ☭

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@lanodan i think the FSF is very bad at communicating with the uninitated users, but they still make a lot of useful things in terms of software and legal work

mirabilos Oct 16

@lizzy @lanodan that’s why distros acting as buffer were invented rather early

@lanodan @lizzy granted, the #FSF is a sad exception from the norm and we can see with the pushback against shit like it or #Framework sponsoring #DHH the kind of #toxic "#Neckbeard" that #Lunduke et. al. want is not being tolerated anymore.

And that is a good thing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2SKenHRhMg via @ncommander
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkoeuC4trF4 via @gardiner_bryant

Why Richard Stallman's Return to the FSF Is Not To Be Celebrated ...

YouTube

Haelwenn /элвэн/

@kkarhan @lizzy
Yeah, in fact @ncommander 's video is one I saved to be sure it I have it regardless of youtube, and it sometimes pops in my mind when I have to use savannah (and sometimes discover the project just doesn't uses savannah anymore, with that being typically undocumented…).

And not sure if I saw @gardiner_bryant 's video before but it's also pretty good. And I agree that FSF is becoming irrelevant, be it political or technical (as quite few projects implementing the same ideas but going further end up having to use or make alternatives).

Wolf480pl Oct 18

@lizzy what about "linux elitist who refuses to use Discord to voicechat with the rest of us, and the game we wanna play together never works on his computer" ? :P

@wolf480pl @lizzy People would use #discord if it wasn't a piece of shit.

Same goes for #malware-laced #Games.

You're angry at the wrong people!

Wolf480pl Oct 18

@kkarhan @lizzy
II *am* the person on whose computer the game never works

@wolf480pl @lizzy welcome to the club.

/me daily driving an #X230Tablet in 2025

lizzy مثلية الله ☭

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@wolf480pl except that those games are supported by linux (wine has all the things necessary to run them), they just have code in them that actively stops them from running on linux, and it's illegal (while technically possible) to remove this code. how exactly is that the fault of linux?

Wolf480pl Oct 18

@lizzy no, it's just that my Arch installation is slightly messed up and also I ran out of disk space again, and I didn't try installing the game ahead of time so if any issues come up, even if those are easily solved, I'll be late and everyone will be waiting for me.

Wolf480pl Oct 18

@lizzy so I'm not saying it's linux's fault.

I'm saying it's the fault of the kind of person who tinkers with linux, and I am that kinda person.

Wolf480pl Oct 18

@lizzy
I guess tying back to your original post:

With freedom comes responsibility.

What we're proposing is:

"When you learn how computers work, you will know that things can be done differently, and you'll be able and also tempted to customize them. And the more you customize, the more it's your responsibility to keep these things working, and some things might not work out of the box."

Wolf480pl Oct 18

"You can always go back, but you can never unsee that things could be better. Do you take the red pill?"

lizzy مثلية الله ☭

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@wolf480pl or just get a smart girlfriend to solve the computer problems for you, that's what i did

NEPŘÁTELSKÉ EMOCE 🇺🇦🇨🇿Oct 18

@lizzy it's the same with lkml
there's this stereotype of arrogant shouty uncles, meanwhile it's just helpful folks, total cuddly bears, and lovely aunties

@lkundrak @lizzy yeah.

It's just the few times @torvalds snapped OFC get the most attention when that's so rare one needs to literally search for it quoting entire sentences.

Not that I defend that but given the context, stuff has drastically improved.

Kevin Karhan :verified: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] granted, the #FSF is a sad exception from the norm and we can see with the pushback against shit like it or #Framework sponsoring #DHH the kind of *#toxic "#Neckbeard"* that #Lunduke et. al. want is *not being tolerated anymore.* - And that *is* a good thing! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2SKenHRhMg via @[email protected] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkoeuC4trF4 via @[email protected]

Infosec.Space

@lizzy unfortunately the lived experience of many people, also onhere, proves otherwise. people are being smug and unhelpful under victim blaming more often than you think

kittysol ~ $Oct 16

@[email protected] yeah, with windows/chromeos etc. being dominant in schools, people grow up with locked down proprietary interfaces that are "easy to use" (i have my own thoughts on that)

if we could get linux in schools and people learn to use that, eventually workplaces will change as well.

on the topic of the FSF phone though, i don't think they will get very far. with the FSF they seem to take a very hard stance on no blobs at all, which means modems just won't work (from what i know most places require modem firmware to be signed and tested because of radio laws)

I wish instead of them focusing on doing it all again they would just promote something like postmarketOS, it does nothing good if they keep putting down other projects

lizzy مثلية الله ☭

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@kittysol iirc they want to reverse engineer and replace the blobs and ultimately even if the project isn't very usable in its upstream form that doesn't mean it won't benefit the ecosystem or that there can't be downstream forks with blobs.

it's about funding i think, not just publicity, so I don't think promoting something else would be good enough. besides that, you need good lawyers if you're gonna reverse engineer blobs, it's a legal grey area. I work for wine where we have a strict policy of never reverse engineering microsoft code and sticking to clean room practices only.

@kittysol @lizzy the librephone thing isn't about "doing it all again", it's not about "no blobs", it's about making libre blobs possible

> Librephone is the FSF's project to free up those blobs. This project's goal is not another Android distribution, but a long-term project to better understand and reverse-engineer the nonfree blobs used by virtually all SoCs made today.

-- https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/librephone

these are very much complementary things and not conflicting with each other

Librephone — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software

@a @kittysol @lizzy what even is a “libre blob”? i thought the whole idea of blobs is that they are binary code not available in their source code form. If a blob was truly free it would not be a blob any more, it would be just source code

Red Riding Root Oct 16

@lizzy Very much agree.

In this age where computers are everywhere, it is very important to have a profound understanding how to deal with them. There is no need for everybody to be a kernel hacker. But nobody should be paralyzed from shock because a button looks slightly different. One needs a good enough understanding of things to find your way around.

I have no idea yet how to teach that to people though :-/

mirabilos Oct 16

@lizzy (there’s good reasons I blocked davidgerard)

poleguy looking for lost tools Oct 18

@lizzy There is an analogy with democracy and party politics to be made here as well. If you don't understand your politics and instead just vote for any candidate who belongs to 'your' party, it also tends to keep the general public in an uneducated state.

James Madison: 'A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.'

My daughter (15) pointed out that Washington warned about the two party system.

poleguy looking for lost tools Oct 18

@lizzy
US politics: Democratic and Republican.
Phones: Apple and Google.
Computers: Apple and Microsoft.

@lizzy EXACTLY THAT is my point!

We need #TechLiteracy ¹ and #MediaLiteracy to be mandated and taught in schools just like reading, writing and maths.

Kevin Karhan :verified: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] and that's why we've to *"militarize"* the defense of those, normalize the use of @[email protected] / #Tor & @[email protected] / @[email protected] / #Tails and *teach #TechLiteracy* to the *"#TechIlliterate" #Normies* out there with like @[email protected] / @[email protected] / #CryptoParty and other #community-based events and gatherings! - Cuz people will only know, use and defend their #freedoms if they've gotten a taste for them and the knowledge of those!

Infosec.Space

@[email protected] yes, absolutely. And as I've grown up and learned technology before this trend, I could actually see it evolve and it's effects on people. It was a concerted, conscious effort by tech giants to make people not learn things, entirely on purpose.

My brother, who is 11 years younger than me, is a bright young man, but he has zero of the tech skills that I know. I had to teach him some pretty basic stuff that I grew up doing, simply because he had no need or avenue to do those things when he was younger and learning tech.

The industry wants everyone to be like the grandmas who click on anything without question. At least we were able to teach our grandmas to not do that.

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< So Say We All .gif >

@lizzy @davidgerard Funny this guy says this. Linux on the desktop these days is much easier than it used to be. Getting close to Apple/Windows ease of use. Our installed with all kinds of productivity apps by default.
Even app stores.