💾 Archived View for tilde.pink › ~kaction › log › 2020-10-26.1.gmi captured on 2023-03-20 at 19:00:11. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)
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Situation in Free Software community deteriorated significantly since 2012, when I prepared my first patch. Back then, community provided guidance to newcomers sending their first patch; these days projects migrate to GitHub so newcomers can click buttons instead. And write ugly commit message in browser, sure.
Power over processed was transferred from those who do things to those who may have done things, but have no clue how. Furthermore, Free Software started to care about "users" -- useless, helpless creatures that do not contribute anything and are not even capable of asking questions properly.
Maybe it was inevitable, as Free Software movement attracted more and more people, maybe it was successful diversion by GitHub and StackOverflow, who wanted more people to make more money. I do not know, my name is not Hari Seldon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari_Seldon
What I know, is that aegis of Free Software worth very little today. Firefox, which makes money by showing ads to its users, is Free Software. Whole repository of javascript packages intended to make life in /dev/tty1 harder is Free Software. Systemd, virus successfully injected by RedHat into many GNU/Linux distributions, is Free Software. Damn, even Android is mostly Free Software.
Let's put it straight. I am programmer, and I am pissed off being treated as
second-class citizen in many Free Software communities by forcing me to use
software that is strictly inferior (e.g GitHub) to what I already use just
because it easier for somebody less experienced. What the hell? People are
supposed to learn; those who can't -- get lost.
Yet, this is no longer attitude of Free Software, so I needed another aegis. I found SourceHut -- source hosting software and platform, designed to embrace well-established tools and processes, not replace them. Yes, we send patches by email.
Free Software as whole is not my home anymore, but projects hosted on SourceHut
are. Of course, having right processes does not imply having right values, but
for now, while SourceHut is in early adoption stage, it attracts exactly the kind of developers I want.
My second new aegis -- Gemini -- project to make from scratch web as it should be. It is about finding right people and right projects to follow in huge Internet. For example, nobody who genuinely endorses "modern" web would be interested in Gemini. And this is a good thing.
I no longer feel lonely in /dev/tty1.