this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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The three stages of a long-term FOSS user:
How the fuck do I do anything? I'm so lost.
I've somewhat mastered how to use it and became a power user. I'm happy about this, I've developed a sense of superiority over those who don't use it, and will now promote it constantly to others like a goddamn cult. My SO has left me and my family has disowned me, but I don't care, they are too ignorant to be as enlightened as I am.
(A decade or two later) I don't even give a fuck anymore what somebody uses, this still works for me, and what works for you, works for you. Let's just all coexist. OS and app development models don't mean shit, common standards and protocols between them do. As long as I, a Linux user, can email a PNG to a Mac user and they can open it, we're good.
It's been like this since the mid-90s. Most of the people who are being annoying about it are in stage 2.
Thank you. Exactly what is happening and why I'm so exhausted. Feels like the stupid Mac vs Windows debates back in the day, with the even more annoying Linux users.
Yes exactly!
Or Commodore 64 vs Apple //e vs IBM PC. Unix System V vs BSD vs VAX/VMS. Gawd. I'm long past those days.
I'm a Linux user. Hopefully not too annoying lol. Also a Mac and Windows user. Because they're tools and I find 'em useful for different things.
I would be very, very surprised if the people getting bent out of shape about an app charging money and/or displaying ads use a flip phone or Linux/bsd phone and no closed source anything. (Car? Network router? Fridge? Television? Seriously? There's closed source firmware in so many things...)
If I am wrong I will eat crow but... Also how? That seems like unhinged religious zealotry.
I don't care for loss of privacy and big corps fucking everyone. But hey I run pihole and ublock. It's not perfect but I have too many other far more important priorities, like friends, family, enjoying life, work, etc. to go all jihad against all closed source software.
I remember being all absolutist and dogmatic in my thinking when I was in my 20s. I gained perspective and chilled in the last 30 years.
I have the (perhaps irrational) fear that sitting too comfortably in stage 3 leads to the kind of complacency that allows things like Web Environment Integrity to escape the "shower thought" phase.
On principle I believe that people shouldn't feel forced to restrict themselves to FOSS - I use Steam and barely ever pirate games ~~(ignore my Lemmy instance I guess)~~; however, I think people should put some effort in understanding the consequences of always choosing the path of least resistance, at the very least.
That's not an issue with FOSS vs proprietary, but with large corporations needing to be broken up.
FOSS isn't immune to that, its a known thing that large corporations can use their dominance of a market segment to infiltrate even totally open standards and make demands with the threat of leaving the standard (and therefore resigning it to becoming irrelevant).
This is especially true of web standards. Chromium is FOSS, yet Google can use its absolute dominance in the market place to force through changes to things like HTTP standards (also FOSS). My understanding is Microsoft and Google both have strong-armed stuff into C++ in the past as well
I prefer my version of stage 3: I still care about software freedom and advocate for it (as well as related issues like interoperability, privacy, and right to repair) but without being an obnoxious fanboy for "Linux" or talking down to people who still use non-free technology for whatever reason.
Simply caring about an issue doesn't make one a cultist or zealot, and not caring about anything does not make one enlightened.
Spot on. For that matter, this is the pattern I've seen in computers since the 80s.
I'm currently a mix between 1 and 3. Learning 2, but not the shitty part of it.
And then
Although that doesn't have the same ring as "fuck these dumb cult members because i don't care and they shouldn't either".
So it's just growing up and becoming a more mature person? Don't think that applies specifically to FOSS enthusiasts. The same could be said about coffee hobbyists, for example.
What version of Linux or unix are you using on your phone?
Nice. I may make a move to something like that soon as my phone is getting near the end.
Unfortunately I don't know how in your case as I'm not even on Lemmy, I'm on Kbin.
This is a prime example of my last point though. Interoperability is all that matters, and we can still communicate even using completely different servers and apps. Just like email. I don't remember there being giant internet flamewars over email clients back in the day, people thought of email as "just email" and it didn't matter what you used.
I'm at 3 and it's been quite annoying all these posts about people pushing Sync glory, saying that every other app is basically a buggy garbage (I'm exaggerating). Like, dude, I enjoy the other apps and I am not having bugs, can you enjoy your app without belittling others? Thanks?
Maybe the reason some people are pissy with Sync is because even with their community blocked it's bloody everywhere on the all feed. Like guys I get it you like it but pls stop.
Launch hype is always like that. Give it a week and things will settle down.