DigitalDilemma

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  • 78 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 22nd, 2023

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  • Fuck this project, but… their source code can be free and open source even if they distribute binaries which aren’t.

    An example of how this didn’t work for one project. (From memory, and it was a long time ago - 2005/2008 ish)

    Xchat was once the best IRC client for Windows (after Mirc). It was free software, but the developer started charging for the Windows builds of it. Linux binaries were still free, but he claimed that it was time consuming to build on Windows and etc etc (A bit rich considering it was mostly his code - and there were suspicions he made it deliberately so)

    Some people were pretty pissed off about this, especially as it used some other code that was foss and it was felt against the spirit.

    Anyway, it was cloned into Hexchat which is fully free on all platforms and apparently not so difficult to build binaries after all.

    15 years later to today, Hexchat is thriving and Xchat has been completely dead for 15 years.


  • I was curious so I took a closer look at Sheltermanager and, honestly, I’m very impressed. They have a free demo on their site so you can show it off to people and see if there’s any interest.

    And agree, self-hosting doesn’t sound like it would suit them or you, but you asked in an opensource thread and that is nearly always self-hosted. SM looks quite fairly priced for a hosted solution.







  • I don’t think it’s blind devotion - most of us would acknowledge the guy can be a bit of a dick sometimes.

    But we’re also grateful. Without his silly idea in the 90s, linux wouldn’t exist. Computing today would be massively different - big, commercial, massively expensive unixes like Sco and Solaris dominating the industry. My main hobby for 20 years would be very different. My career for six years wouldn’t exist.

    That Linus has stayed an actively contributing member whilst not selling out in any way at all for 34 years is… wow. Could you do it? I’m certain i couldn’t. I have neither the ethical strength nor moral compass to do it. And I’m certain if he dropped out, some of the massive egos that satellite around Linux, or the monetizing businesses would seek to take over and twist it to their needs.

    And, y’know, on the matter of technical detail like this. He’s nearly always right. Seriously, look it up. He’s not polite, he’s not diplomatic, but he’s nearly always right. And when he’s not, he’ll admit it. Again, not your normal human.

    So yeah, that’s why we respect him and, when he talks, we listen. Even if it’s not something we’re involved with, it’s usually an interesting ride.













  • Why would I care enough to try and discredit you on any grounds than you’ve written here? I don’t know you, I don’t care about you other than what I’ve read in this thread where you come across as arrogant and the aggressor. Not quite the innocent party you’re trying to project.

    Don’t worry about replying, I’m going to use Lemmy’s block user system. Not used it before, but I think it’s the best way to deal with someone I have a disagreement with and don’t want to talk with any further, rather than wasting others time with vexatious development requests.