eb47cfa16c342653932947be69359a07
Forcing People to Run Spyware at Home
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
Summary: In order to attain full control of one's computer or computing a prerequisite is Software Freedom (it's not everything; but that's a start!) and companies that leverage Linux and sometimes GNU/Linux (e.g. Gentoo) to make their operating systems don't share our vision, centered around user autonomy; instead it's all about domination over the user, control over the user's data and so on
THERE'S a "creeping" (and creepy) new threat that almost nobody speaks about outside the Free software spheres. Every now and then it comes up in our IRC channels and this "Gulag" (Google) vision of computing doubles down on it. To them, the future isn't freedom but a form of Linux-powered tyranny, where people are restricted to running Gulag-approved "apps" and are being constantly spied on. There's an ambition to do the same to GNU/Linux at large, not just ChromeOS and Android (see "Google's Software is Malware"; Google's sponsorship of the FSF did not completely silence the founder [1, 2]).
Aral Balkan, whose contrarian views I very often agree with, asked me not to cover Android in Tux Machines (he's rightly concerned about the direction Android has taken) and he reminded his audience as recently as several weeks ago that what he called "surveillance capitalism" is in fact powered by Linux (we wrote about this many times in relation to the Linux Foundation; we've taken note since 2019).
"To them, the future isn't freedom but a form of Linux-powered tyranny, where people are restricted to running Gulag-approved "apps" and are being constantly spied on."Linux does not mean freedom (not necessarily anyway). The vocabulary we use to promote Free Software Freedom will need to adapt accordingly. For example, assuming that "Linux world domination" or "move to Linux" means the end of digital oppression is misguided or outdated a notion; Linux in 2022 isn't what it used to be. Soon there will be a good chunk of GitHub in it. It's very sad to us GNU/Linux advocates; in recent years we saw much of what we had long advocated for (some of us for decades) changing or moving goalposts all of a sudden. Some former allies (of convenience) became foes. ⬆