beyond

joined 4 years ago
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[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 3 points 1 year ago

This app is actually free (as in freedom) and not merely gratis.

https://github.com/bitwarden/authenticator-android

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Everyone who has an Android phone "uses Linux without the command line." Your question, however, seems to be "is it possible to play Windows games on Debian without the command line" (edit: or, more broadly, "how suitable is Debian as a Windows replacement") which is not the same question.

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

F-Droid has high inclusion standards (not high enough IMO but apparently too high for many Android developers). If a project isn't in F-Droid and has no interest in being in F-Droid I consider it a red flag, but it's crucial to find out if an issue has been opened and what the project's response on that issue is. Sometimes it's just because the developer(s) haven't gotten around to it yet, but other times it's because there's a proprietary component that can't be easily removed.

For example on this app (2fas) the reason it's not on F-Droid is apparently because it uses Google cloud messaging (FCM) and there's no interest in developing a version without. https://github.com/twofas/2fas-android/issues/14

Unfortunately with the security FUD against F-Droid peddled in part by PrivacyGuides and other organizations (which Obtainium and its fanbase happily help spread) there is decreasing interest even in using, let alone developing for, this repository.

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

AFAIK on Android it has a hard dependency on Google services. I don't mind installing proprietary stuff to my work profile for the express purposes of work but that requires modifying my system to accommodate this specific app and that's a step too far for my personal device. So I use a free software option (Aegis) instead.

edit: if for some reason I really did need MS Authenticator and not any old TOTP app, I would procure a googled device specifically for work rather than install google or microG into my personal device.

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 51 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Notice they avoid using the exact term "open source" in this press release. I'm ~90% sure it'll turn out to be under some proprietary source-available license.

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 35 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

On the one hand, anything that acknowledges Android as being a Linux system is welcome.

On the other hand... ugh, user-agent strings.

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

Android emulation works better on it because the difference between Linux and Android is not that big

To be clear, the difference between Linux and Android is about the same as the difference between Linux and Fedora, in that they are both Linuxes. That's why this works, and why the reverse (running GNU/Linux apps and even entire systems on Android) is possible as well.

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There is, I believe, a fundamental misunderstanding as to what exactly a site like Stack Overflow is. It's not a forum; there's no such thing as "your posts." It's more like Wikipedia, as in a collaborative question-and-answer site, or a knowledgebase. Each question and answer can be edited like a mini wiki page. They aren't "yours" any more than the Wikipedia page you created ten years ago is; you contributed it to the commons, so (at least in theory) you don't have the right to take it back.

Whether whatever "Open"AI is doing is right is another question, of course. But, I don't think destroying or poisoning the commons to strike back at it is any helpful either; it feels like "destroying it to save it."

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 3 points 1 year ago

I would certainly hope so. Stack Overflow content is Creative Commons licensed, so the argument is basically that the GDPR would take precedence over the CC license grant. It'd be scary if GDPR could be weaponized against forks of free software projects in this manner.

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There's a certain irony, I think - the original free software movement was based on ensuring the users' freedom to use, modify, and share software. "Open source" came about as a "business friendly" rebranding of Stallman's movement (see Open source misses the point). Naturally, being friendly to business doesn't mean business will be friendly back. That is to say, I acknowledge the unhealthy relationship between "business friendly open source" and the proprietary software industry.

That said, it should be extremely obvious that most hardline free software supporters like Richard Stallman and Drew DeVault (https://drewdevault.com/2021/01/20/FOSS-is-to-surrender-your-monopoly.html) are far from "corporate bootlickers" the latter of which even runs an (actual) free software company (and yet also started this community fork of Redis).

If you can't make money from free software then feel free to sell proprietary software instead. What we take issue with is the attempt to co-opt the open source label, the attacks on real free software/open source, and (especially in this thread) the incessant name calling and accusations of bootlickery (while also characterizing anyone who pushes back as being "toxic"). Maybe we're not just simping for Amazon here, maybe we actually see the forest for the trees and recognize the dangers of normalizing fauxpen source licenses.

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Damn this community is getting really toxic.

You're upset that a community called "open source" is pushing back against an attempt to co-opt the open source label? In my view this attempt is highly insidious and far worse than one corporate actor "stealing" (i.e. using) an open source project. These projects were all true free software before pulling the rug on the community and switching to a fauxpen source license, which makes it even worse - if these were proprietary from the beginning no one would have cared, but also fewer people would have contributed, because it doesn't feel as good doing volunteer work for a proprietary product.

I agree there needs to be a mechanism in place for free software developers to be financially compensated but if you're changing the license so that it's no longer free software then it's just proprietary software under some faux "open" label, at which point you might just drop the pretense of being "open" at all - just admit you're a proprietary software company that puts your financial interest ahead of the community's.

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 5 points 1 year ago

We already have a perfectly good term for this sort of licensing model:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_software

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