Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

There is a certain "warrior culture" of coding, where young devs spend long hours deeply focused on creating "epic" software, and coders age out rapidly. This has upsides and downsides. There are other cultures of coding too, but this warrior culture created large swathes of computing as we know it, and the culture is still embedded. #Java and #Windows are examples. Bill Gates hasn't contributed code to Windows since 1985. #Python shows a different culture, the old are still contributing code

I'm sad to say that my new #laptop still needs non-free firmware blobs for working WiFi, Bluetooth, audio, and power management. Now #Debian will include those in the installer. Are we losing this #FreeSoftware fight? At least the graphics driver is #free and included in upstream Linux, that is progress. I specifically avoided #nvidia for that purpose.

How are others feeling on the firmware blob fight?

Everything was clearly better in the past, we can't even get #radioactive toothpaste anymore!

One effect of the #UkraineWar is that it gives the #US #UK #NATO #Saudi etc a case to use to rehabilitate the idea they focus on: that military power is a force of good. #AfghanWar #IraqWar #LibyaWar #YemenWar provided a template for #Putin to follow. This is really not discussed enough because people want to support Ukraine in this difficult time, but it must always be part of any discussion of providing military support. Kudos to #politico for running this political cartoon linking these.

@ljacomet I just saw your slides for your talk "Protecting your organization
against attacks via the
build system", a great overview! I'm a #Debian dev who has worked on packaging #Gradle. We'd love to make it as close to your version as possible. There is a proprietary build dependency that blocks that from happening. https://github.com/gradle/gradle/issues/16439

There seems to be a common mode of thinking about #software these days that is something like "updated software is always best". I agree there is some truth to that, but it is unfortunately not that simple. Most vulns were introduced in an update, they were not there from the beginning. "Security is a process, not a product", so how the software is developed changes the relationship between updates and #security, e.g. software that never issues stable updates vs. software with stable releases.

I guess I left out my personal motivation: as the father of two curious boys, I'd love for the #internet to be a place of free exploration again, like I first experienced it in 1994. It is far too easy for an 11 year to find things they can never unsee, or really even understand. And even worse, lots of it is coming from services that are literally trying to hook people and get them addicted.

The real power to control the problems related to porn comes from the payment. If sites can't accept credit cards or build substantial advertising businesses, there will be much less money going to middlemen. For me the open question is how much to be concerned about also making it harder for the performers to get money //