Bonum Certa Men Certa

Free Software: A Love Story

Summary: A little bit of background about how I was introduced to Free software (I had to dig hard myself; media wasn't helping) and why its advocacy is becoming only more important over time

MY adventures with Free software began around age 19 when I was introduced to GNU as a developer (GTK work). Prior to that I had already become familiar with GNU/Linux, albeit the philosophy and true history wasn't as widely available, so I wasn't truly familiar with it (like many others, as a teenager, I had this idea that "Linux" was something from Finland and that's all there was to it).



AquariumI was a colleague, for a number of years, of the person who combined GNU and Linux to form the first ever GNU/Linux distribution. Last I heard, he still worked at the University. I worked there while studying. At a later stage I became more familiar with the history and the nature of various BSDs; I ran one site on BSD and some of the back end where I worked included BSDs.

My trajectory in understanding all this goes two decades back, but not much has changed in the way people are introduced to GNU/Linux. For those who think I discovered the FSF and GNU too late, bear in mind I'm celebrating my thirty-eighth birthday today, so unless I was some 'wunderkind', I wouldn't know GNU since inception (I was just over a year old when GNU started). GNU and I are almost the same age. Cue goofy jokes about marrying GNU...

GodIn any event, the more I read about GNU philosophy, and the more society became dependent on technology (cash registers for instance; when I was a small child some small shops still used paper and pen, sometimes a calculator, to come up with the bill!), the more I understood the importance of GNU/Linux not just as "substitute to Microsoft/Windows" but something bigger with broader implications. Microsoft isn't the only problem and had Microsoft vanished overnight, we'd still have a big mess to contend with on numerous fronts.

FishIn recent months I became privy or exposed to some discussions internal to Free software groups and people; I came to realise that a crisis had been brewing and that predates Stallman's talk at Microsoft, followed (within weeks) by his 'cancellation'.

At no point did that depress me; I fought on, seeking to help Stallman, the FSF and all those other groups, even those which seemed to have lost their compass (FSFE for instance).

Earlier today figosdev mentioned Atlantis as means of an analogy (fictional, sure, but it makes a point; hence the photos in this personal 'essay'); I've long dreaded the thought -- going back to my days as a young student -- of the possibility of GNU/Linux 'going away', forcing me into some sort of proprietary system. This fear -- as shall we say 'phobia' -- was the most powerful motivator behind my activism or GNU/Linux advocacy in 2003-2008. I felt like we were fighting for the very existence of GNU/Linux as a desktop/laptop platform, long before Android came along and the whole 'game' changed (Windows no longer being the dominant platform). Remember that at one point, in 2006, Novell signed a hugely treasonous deal, followed by (a year later) a few similar deals that put an actual 'patent tax' on GNU/Linux distros (remember Xandros?). That's why this site exists. Imagine having to go through Microsoft to download your GNU/Linux operating system. Also bear WSL in mind... they're still trying. They tried a similar approach for guarding the Office monopoly.

Mayan pyramidJonathan I. Schwartz, CEO of Sun, said after he had left (company sold): "Steve Jobs threatened to sue me, too. [and also] Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. They’d flown in over a weekend to meet with Scott McNealy. [...] Bill skipped the small talk, and went straight to the point, “Microsoft owns the office productivity market, and our patents read all over OpenOffice.” [...] Bill was delivering a slightly more sophisticated variant of the threat Steve had made, but he had a different solution in mind. “We’re happy to get you under license.” That was code for “We’ll go away if you pay us a royalty for every download” – the digital version of a protection racket."

Microsoft has not changed.

Listen.

It hasn't.

I should know. I have contacts inside Microsoft (past and present). People inside are very much aware of the company's evil deeds, which now include working for ICE and the Pentagon, not to mention oil companies that drill the oceans to death (I love sea creatures and they're slaughtered by the millions by those greedy, reckless companies).

Reno neon lightsThe lights on the left are from Reno, where Microsoft evades tax by the billions. Who sort of blew the whistle on it, or at least did lots of activism on the matter? Jeff Reifman, who came from Microsoft and possibly became Microsoft's biggest nightmare a decade back. In his own words: "Microsoft et al. lobbied to reduce Washington State's Royalty Tax [...] The company decided to open a small Reno..." (there are equivalents abroad)

Reno neon lightsReifman and I exchanged E-mails a very long time ago and I must admit we get some of our best material from disgruntled employees of the company. Don't discount their effort. Some of them "saw the light" -- like those lights from Reno (right). Many people nowadays follow Lunduke for his GNU/Linux activism. He too spent a number of years working for Microsoft. Working for Microsoft is definitely a mistake, but I also believe that people deserve a chance to accept that they made a mistake and try to correct or compensate for such mistakes.

The way I see it -- and I believe others too ought to see it -- Microsoft remains the biggest enemy and the most potent threat to GNU/Linux, for various reasons that are unique. But looking at the bigger picture, which includes "clown computing" (Amazon et al), surveillance (Google, Facebook, Microsoft and many more), for software freedom to survive fashionable consumerism and trends we need to speak of the underlying issues, convincing if not compelling people to demand it, to fight for it. Jagadees.S. is a good advocate in that regard as he manages to break down the concepts and explain those in terms everyday people can grasp.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Brittany Day, Plagiarist in Chief (Chatbot Slinger)
3 articles in the front page of LXer.com right now are chatbot spew
Guardian Digital, Inc (linuxsecurity.com) Has Resorted to Plagiarism by Chatbots, Flooding the World Wide Web With Fake 'Articles' Wrongly Attributed to Brittany Day
busted
Microsoft-Connected Sites Trying to Shift Attention Away From Microsoft's Megabreach Only Days Before Important If Not Unprecedented Grilling by the US Government?
Why does the mainstream media not entertain the possibility a lot of these talking points are directed out of Redmond?
 
Peter Eckersley, Laura Smyth & the rushed closure of dial-up Internet in Australian universities
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] Bullying the Victims
IBM: crybully of the year 2024
Ian.Community Should be Safer From Trademark Censorship
We wish to discuss this matter very quickly
Microsoft and Its Vicious Attack Dogs (Attacking Women or Wives in Particular)
Sad, pathetic, destructive people
Upcoming Series About the Campaign to 'Disappear' the Father of GNU/Linux
Today we have Julian Assange's fate to focus on
A Month From Now Gemini Protocol Turns 5
June 20
Colombia: From Less Than 0.5% to Nearly 4% for GNU/Linux
it's not limited to this one country
Rumour: Well Overdue Red Hat Layoffs to be Announced in About 3 Days
we know they've planned the layoffs for a while
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 19, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, May 19, 2024
Gemini Links 20/05/2024: Updated Noto Fontpacks and gemfeed2atom
Links for the day
GNU/Linux in Georgia: Looking Good
Windows down from 99% to less than 33%
Tomorrow is a Historic Day for Press Freedom in the UK
Take note of the Julian Assange case
Hiding in a Forest Without a Phone and Hiding Behind the First Amendment in the United States (US)
some serial defamer is trying to invert the narrative
Links 19/05/2024: Iran's President Lost in Helicopter Crash, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange Awaits Decisions in Less Than a Day
Links for the day
Links 19/05/2024: Microsoft Investigated in Europe
Links for the day
4 Old Articles About Microsoft/IBM SystemD
old but still relevant
Firefox Has Fallen to 2% in New Zealand
At around 2%, at least in the US (2% or below this threshold), there's no longer an obligation to test sites for any Gecko-based browser
Winning Streak
Free software prevalence
Links 19/05/2024: Conflicts, The Press, and Spotify Lawsuit
Links for the day
GNU/Linux+ChromeOS at Over 7% in New Zealand
It's also the home of several prominent GNU/Linux advocates
libera.chat (Libera Chat) Turns 3 Today
Freenode in the meantime continues to disintegrate
[Teaser] Freenode NDA Expires in a Few Weeks (What Really Happened 3 Years Ago)
get ready
GNU/Linux is Already Mainstream, But Microsoft is Still Trying to Sabotage That With Illegal Activities and Malicious Campaigns of Lies
To help GNU/Linux grow we'll need to tackle tough issues and recognise Microsoft is a vicious obstacle
Slovenia's Adoption of GNU/Linux in 2024
Whatever the factor/s may be, if these figures are true, then it's something to keep an eye on in the future
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 18, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, May 18, 2024
Links 19/05/2024: Profectus Beta 1.2
Links for the day
Site Archives (Not WordPress)
We've finally finished the work
[Meme] The EPO Delusion
on New Ways of Working
EPO Representatives Outline Latest Attacks on Staff
Not much has happened recently in terms of industrial action
Links 18/05/2024: Revisiting the Harms of Patent Trolls, Google Tries to Bypass (or Plagiarise) Sites Under the Guise of "AI"
Links for the day
Links 18/05/2024: BASIC Story, Site Feeds, and New in Geminispace
Links for the day
GNU/Linux in Kyrgyzstan: From 0.5% to 5% in Eight Years
the country is almost the size of the UK
Justice for Victims of Online Abuse
The claims asserted or pushed forth by the harasser are categorically denied
[Meme] Senior Software Engineer for Windows
This is becoming like another Novell
Links 18/05/2024: Deterioration of the Net, North Korean IT Workers in the US
Links for the day
Windows in Lebanon: Down to 12%?
latest from statCounter
[Video] 'Late Stage Capitalism': Microsoft as an Elaborate Ponzi Scheme (Faking 'Demand' While Portraying the Fraud as an Act of Generosity and Demanding Bailouts)
Being able to express or explain the facts isn't easy because of the buzzwords
Links 18/05/2024: Caledonia Emergency Powers, "UK Prosecutor's Office Went Too Far in the Assange Case"
Links for the day
Microsoft ("a Dying Megacorporation that Does Not Create") and IBM: An Era of Dying Giants With Leadership Deficits and Corporate Bailouts (Subsidies From Taxpayers)
Microsoft seems to be resorting to lots of bribes and chasing of bailouts (i.e. money from taxpayers worldwide)
US Patent and Trademark Office Sends Out a Warning to People Who Do Not Use Microsoft's Proprietary Formats
They're punishing people who wish to use open formats
Links 18/05/2024: Fury in Microsoft Over Studio Shutdowns, More Gaming Layoffs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 17, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, May 17, 2024
Links 18/05/2024: KOReader, Benben v0.5.0 Progress Update, and More
Links for the day