free software resistance

 the cost of computing freedom is eternal vigilance

### a-letter-to-free-software-refugees *originally posted:* sep 2024 ive been talking for years about the state of the free software movement. this isnt written to try to convince people who dont agree, and it isnt written with the assumption that you do agree- it is simply advice about what to do when you feel the free software movement has failed. what its not, is a call to join open source. i joined open source over a decade and a half ago, and i left open source because it was two-faced, disingenuous and opportunistic. you may not feel that way about it- i am happy to talk about the exceptions, but im more concerned with what open source is overall: a corporate counterrevolution that helped end the free software movement. i dont care- at the moment- whether people think the free software movement was "ended" or not. im not going to blame marginalised groups like some of us did during our misguided libertarian phases, im going to take you back to 1999 when bruce perens resigned from osi saying it had done too much to co-opt free software. i also dont care if you call it free software. sure, its better than saying "open source". some of you say libre software, some of you might someday say "free computing"- you can call it free software if you want to. if you call it open source, i think thats part of the problem. why? because open source hands the entire movement over to corporations. yes it does, and thats why i ditched it. but anyway, whatever. a history lesson could be really helpful, but this isnt about the history of free software. at least not right now. its about the future of free computing. but call it free software if you want. lets start with where we are: gcc, gdb and gnu libc are controlled by ibm. you dont have to agree with me on that, ive seen it that way for years and those companies control the servers as well as have significant influence over the project. many so-called "contributors" to gnu move their projects to github. the main c compilers- not the only ones- are hosted by ibm and microsoft, respectively. there are smaller c compilers, which may or may not be possible to use to build a self-hosting operating system without permission from these megacorporations. personally, i do not think capitalism and free software co-exist. i do not think its possible, nor are they compatible. free software itself, is neutral about capitalism. im completely done with that. what this neutrality has done, is created an astroturf corporate monopolist version of free software called "open source", it has constantly made fallacious appeals to compromise to "meet in the middle" about the goals of monopolies rather than users, and it has resulted in practically every mainstream programming language implementation to move from servers controlled by academia, or the founding authors, or at least some not-for-profit, to hosting and collaboration that exists at the mercy and the rules of for-profit corporations. thats a completely asinine way to build an ecosystem around the idea of "users controlling their computing." ibm and microsoft control your computing- and though they do it little by little, they have captured more than 90% of the software intended to "liberate" the user- as well as countless libraries and tools needed to produce, maintain or provide library support to 99% of that software. the movement failed. but its not my intention to say that nothing can be done. when you talk about failure, some people say youre trying to discourage people from even trying. take it however you like, if you dont want computing to be controlled by monopolies, people are going to have to try harder than doing literally everything on ibm and microsofts terms! but youre just a user of course- thats okay. that was always okay. there are lots of things users can do. the first thing you should do is stop underestimating users. im not saying everyone can write an application (though they probably could, given the right tools and knowledge- the latter is tricky) but everyone can help. the original way to help the free software movement was to use free software. this cant be stressed enough- the original way to help the free software movement was to use free software. okay, someone had to write free software first. but as soon as anyone had written any, simply using it was helpful. but there are reasons that just using free software is helpful- first, if people are using free software, it makes that software more important. i dont mean in terms of marketshare- marketshare is something monopolies care a lot about, and its a mixed bag. if hundreds of people use your software, thats great for you and its great for them. if hundreds of thousands of people use it, thats bad for monopolies who will spend years (microsoft did) trying to take over their competitors. dont tell me they dont do that anymore. the best way to take over a project is to look like youre just helping and donating. you think microsoft didnt use those tactics to take over other companies? again, a history lesson would be helpful there. but lets get back to how it helps to use free software. if you dont use free software, you wont be very familiar with it. you wont be one of the people who can say "i use it too". you generally wont be As Much help to people who might look to you for help when they also use the software. but also if you dont use the software, you wont have nearly as much reason to care about it. and if you dont care about it, you wont help as much when its time to even say why software should be free- instead of say, being controlled by a corporation. im not saying corporations cant make free software- its often said that theyre the biggest contributors. okay. but if a company with no interest in selling their competing product contributes something to a project thats too big (or too niche) for them to care about managing themselves, thats not a problem. the problem is when a company controls a project, like red hat did, it can just be bought out- like red hat was. that wasnt a new problem when it happened to red hat. it was just a very big version of that problem. if youre going to tell me the free software movement doesnt care about this, or doesnt care about it very much- i agree. free software has already been taken over by open source. the counterrevolution is complete. people dont work for free software, they work for the megacorporations that exploit it. this isnt what freedom actually looks like. libertarian politics are useless to this- as well as to humanity. libertarians just get people to do more for less, whether its less money, fewer human rights or less actual freedom for everyone but the rich- and then half of them or more sell out to some fascist because he says he hates big government. first of all, he doesnt hate big government- he hates that he isnt running it, that it doesnt run his way. but more to the point, libertarians have NO CLUE about how to save free software. every edgelord on youtube, tiktok and twitch thinks theyre going to save free software by making it so you can just shit-talk anyone you want, without any justification, other than some double standard that will last for 6 months while you make the latest safe space for "free speech", which was all the rage nearly a decade ago. none of that ever goes anywhere. libertarians: the left cares about free speech, you just dont know what it is. okay, not tankies. dont bother with tankies, theyre as useless as libertarians. but go ahead, waste the next half a decade with libertarians, just like i did. theyre a lot like open source- pointless, and not really about freedom. then when youve done that and realise they had nothing to offer but streams of them using some umpteenth iteration of a simple tool that has been destroyed over and over by red hat, or gnome, and you want to talk about free software again, at least you can say you know as well as i do just how useless the libertarians really are. theyre only going to get you to do the same bs that open source did in the 90s and early 00s. theyre going to tell you that free software is lame, that its not good-looking enough, that its underpowered, that it doesnt have enough users. and how you can fix all that by growing a beard or shaving your head or getting tattoos, and installing sway. its all bullshit. the way you USED TO advance free software freedom was to join the fsf, who had an office, who maintained their own servers, who moved software away from monopolies. they dont do those things anymore- i have no idea where theyre going to put their servers. where will savannah be based? true to open source, savannah has been revamped several times, but no new option ever made it out of beta. whats the point? ibm controls the crown jewels. i spent years advocating for a fork of the gnu project, but i honestly dont think theres a lot there that needs to be salvaged. if you feel differently, go ahead and salvage it. its probably too big now. want to fork a whole operating system with a free license? thats what hyperbola is doing. the free software movement doesnt even care about hyperbola. thats too bad, hyperbola is one of the few projects actually working on free software. the gnu project isnt- theyre just shoveling mostly unpaid labour towards the goals of monopolies doing antitrust now. granted im not accusing the unpaid labourers of having that goal- theyre being told this sweatshop is making users free! not that i think everyone should just join hyperbola. if corporations can end the fsf with the fsfs help, then they can end hyperbola with hyperbolas help, too. while i hope hyperbola is successful in their really awesome goals, i think we need smaller projects and ambitions of varying sizes. most projects should not be big. xfce wont liberate users, because they are controlled by gnome via gtk3. gnome didnt even write gtk3, they just took over development. you can tell me that gtk3 developers moved there of their own volition- that isnt even relevant, when they moved there they gave gnome another lever to weaponise against software freedom. these arent your allies, gnome are (as a software project) bullies who abuse users then shift the blame to their victims. but even if they werent, if you dont like gnome there used to be other options. kde? i mean, kde didnt always require hardware acceleration. they started requiring more from graphics configurations at a time when this meant you were more likely to need non-free drivers to get the extra features. kde doesnt care about your freedom. nor does the fsf- they care about getting funding. yes, at one point some of these projects WERE about freedom. they got tied up in the business of raising funds, or finding sponsors, or sucking up to monopolies, or meeting open source in the middle- and they stopped being about freedom. but smaller projects- provided there is any language to write them in, or any way to compile them, of course- just ask ibm if its okay- smaller projects are easier to maintain. the smaller and simpler it is, the less a company will try to take it over. but even if they do, it will be easier to fork. im not saying that forking is the solution to everything- but it relies on freedom 3, and people seem to really hate on freedom 3. we created a world where the four freedoms look like this: 0. the freedom to use the software, until freedesktop gets bored with it and tells you to use something else. 1. the freedom to study the software, until its too big for even linus torvalds to understand. 2. the freedom to share copies of the software, until someone dmcas your github repo. 3. the freedom to share modified versions of the software, until gnome or debian find a way to destroy you. freedom 3 is also the freedom to move the moon a little bit to the left. because youre not going to fork the linux kernel. people have actually forked the bsd kernel. youre not going to fork libreoffice- youre going to watch helplessly as collabora does to it what oracle tried to do. and youre not going to fork gcc or gnu libc (but i could be wrong, i guess) so ibm is just going to do whatever they want with it, and that was fun while it lasted. the point is, these are what the organisations have done with the movement- theyve done what the music industry does to artists and fans- what the film industry does to actors, what the democratic party does to activism- theyve completely monopolised the revolution, and used it as a way to make capitalism even cheaper and more exploitative. people writing software for free, and managed by corporations that soft-dictate how the projects they rely on are going to work. i know, doing it peacemeal makes it look a lot more like cooperation and collaboration. who ACTUALLY BELIEVES that megacorporations give a shit about your freedom? oh yeah, the libertarians. but THERE ARE things YOU can do: 1. stop believing that corporations are here to help. theyre not doing it for You. theyre NEVER doing it for you. youre not going to outsmart them on their own turf. Stop Relying On Them. stop believing in people who do. they do not want you to be free. if they did, they would get bought out anyway. 2. use free software. what? you cant move to an entirely free system? that isnt an argument against people making entirely free systems. open source hates the idea. you shouldnt. Use As Much free software As You Can. and stop making arguments for using less of it. thats a trick open source used to make people think they only had two choices- an impossible one, and trusting corporations. 3. avoid "bigger" software when possible. you need libreoffice? okay. your phone only runs android? these projects get worse and worse. stop pretending theyre going to improve. Dream Up Alternatives. maybe that dream wont be realised for the next 5-10 years, when you meet someone who can work to make it reality. but dont just give up and settle for google running your life. buy a phone, and hate it. its a bad thing that probably wont ever be free. but if you can fix that, great! most people who say they can fix it are bullshitting you. this doesnt mean freer forks are bad. it means your phone is- and freer forks of android come and go. its a LOT to maintain. 4. Move Away From Github. theyre the enemy. theyre never going to be your friend. if youre ACTUALLY friends with microsoft, youre the enemy. no, seriously, youre the problem. i wish you were the only problem. 5. stop pretending you know what free speech is. its not that. youll find out what it is eventually, but MOST people on the left care what free speech is. all the right cares about is cheap labour, destroying the planet and fascism. fuck them. 6. learn to code! learn to code anything. writing simpler things is good, but youre going to hear a lot of nonsense about what simple is. simple is whats easy to maintain- preferably with few people, without a lot of sponsors. you just want to do shell scripts? okay. try pdksh. its less tedious to use than bash. bash has so many features, youll spend a decade learning to use it "properly" and youll never feel like you know how to code. try python or javascript. actually just try python, javascript is cursed. yes, i use it. i also avoid it most of the time. this page uses it- look at the source code. you can read most of the source code easily even if you disable javascript. its not "optional" the way youre used to it being optional. its optional another way entirely. 7. become an anticapitalist. free software will never achieve its goal of all software being free as long as capitalism exists. other political views are useless and destroying the species. fuck tankies, the rest of the left is okay. 8. it was never about political correctness. 9. it was never about "being right" either. whats right is something the world figures out as it goes along. it cant be dictated. this isnt anti-science. it isnt scientism either. what matters is human rights, including the right to study, learn, communicate. for everyone. 10. fix the problems the fsf wont. they never will. start small, like most of the big projects did. then when it gets too big, when freedom isnt possible- fork it. fork what you can. salvage what you can. but worry about YOUR freedom, and your friends freedom, and the freedom of people who NEED your help, before you worry about whatever bullshit ibm is trying to get you to work on for free. free software was a movement- it could be a movement again. but people have to act like activists, not like the serfs and unpaid interns most of them have become. oh and, youre not going to convince most people. you can and should research that sure- most people are happy being serfs and unpaid interns. i dont know why. open source told them its cool. what a bunch of crap. finally, free software underestimated the value of free culture (well, im not sure how much value it has at this point, kind of like gnu- but as an idea its still very important) and the value of free hardware. we need free culture, or free gaming (and free web browsers) will suffer as they become more locked down- which will happen either way, to different degrees. we need free hardware, or the problems of non-free software can just be (and will be) implemented using hardware instead. the old guard has failed. we should let them fail, they dont want to be saved. the first step towards revolution is unions. but the first step towards free software is still, to use free software. then you can find out why its just a big blob of crap from ibm, and maybe you can start turning into little projects that hobbyists and researchers can work on again- you know, without getting permission to create a goddamned notification area without a competing project (or product) like gnome telling you what what to do. to those who think this is just rambling: you may. i break these ideas down on a regular basis. ive been rambling about these things for years. a lot of you have been regurgitating corporate propaganda. we are not the same. freedom is not elitist. the people who tell you that get paid to undo the charitable work done by thousands or hundreds of thousands of people over decades. theyre evil. you dont have to be their shill. you dont have to be a toxic chestbeating youtuber who brings your top-scores sort of thinking to "getting software to work". thats still capitalism. its really stupid, and its killing the planet. libertarians failed you. leftists who know better when it comes to everything else, should start treating corporations who destroy free software the same way they treat corporations who destroy literally everything (BUT?) free software. no, it hasnt gotten better. what the actual fuck? seriously. license: 0-clause bsd ``` # 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 # # Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any # purpose with or without fee is hereby granted. # # THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES # WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF # MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR # ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES # WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN # ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF # OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. ``` => https://freesoftwareresistance.neocities.org