“Open Source” Really Does Miss the Point, We Can Do Better Than That
TOMORROW my main laptop reaches 500 days of uptime. It's a new record for me. GNU/Linux is a very stable and reliable operating system. The other two laptops have a similar uptime right now; they were last rebooted in 2023.
Is this an accomplishment of the kernel? No. Typically, or looking back in time (historically) at 'downtime incidents', the culprits are in the stack somewhere further up, e.g. some application hoarding all the RAM until it runs out. To me, it's the UNIX-type design that provides a solid, robust system. If something goes wrong, it's then possible to kill the offending process/es in isolation.
To say that Linux is overhyped is like claiming that “Open Source Misses the Point"; what matters isn't just the source code being available; cost does not matter either. To me, personally, being able to take control of the system (i.e. freedom) is what gives a lot of power over it. The user has all the power.
We must talk about control, freedom, and autonomy. Alex (Alexandre) Oliva has just made a point about it; he made his own independent site. He even removes non-free software from Linux (there's this new chapter called "The World of Linux", published this week [1]. Based on the abstract, the author is jumping directly from UNIX to "Linux" (skipping GNU is Not UNIX)).
We need to reject groups of people who promote Microsoft GitHub (proprietary) and call that "Open Source". Even the latest addition at the OSI (not connected to Microsoft, for a change) has just spoken about pseudo-Open Source/openwashing [2]. One can hope that the likes of Simon Phipps can somehow save the OSI from Microsoft's takeover; seeing that Microsoft is low on money and ever so desperate to silence us (wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds on some misogynists with a law degree), maybe its annual bribes for the OSI will become unsustainable. As we noted this morning, Microsoft's principal operative in the OSI has said not a word in nearly a month. █
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New Chapter, The World of Linux [Seems to be skipping GNU altogether]
In this chapter, we are setting up our playground: a running Linux system. But you should first get an idea of what operating systems in general and Linux in particular are. It is not absolutely necessary to know all of this. However, since you will be working with Linux, you will be part of its history! I think you should know (and appreciate) the basics of this history. Then, you will learn some of the ways you can run Linux on your computer or connect to a Linux server. So this chapter is the foundation for all the other chapters. Finally, you will see how easy it is to install software.
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Open Source Initiative ☛ Meta’s LLaMa license is still not Open Source
A year ago we called on Meta to stop calling Llama 2 “Open Source.” Since then, Meta has released new versions of Llama with new licensing terms that continue to fail the Open Source Definition. Llama 3.x is still not Open Source by any stretch of the imagination. Despite that, Meta keeps on falsely promoting Llama as “Open Source.” You can help us stop that now: call on Zuckerberg and Yann LeCunn to change the Llama license and comply with the Open Source Definition.