Collaborate Disseminate
A reflection on my month without Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon, plus a how-to guide if you want to quit the biggest companies in tech. Continue reading How I Quit Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon
On Tuesday, developers behind Lerna revoked access for any company collaborating with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Continue reading Major Open Source Project Revokes Access to Companies That Work with ICE
Free and open source software (FOSS) was a recurring theme during many of the talks during the HOPE XII conference, which should probably come as no surprise. Hackers aren’t big fans of being monitored by faceless corporate overlords or being told what they can and cannot do on the hardware they purchased. Replacing proprietary software with FOSS alternatives is a way to put control back into the hands of the user, so naturally many of the talks pushed the idea.
In most cases that took the form of advising you to move your Windows or Mac OS computer over to …read more
Continue reading HOPE XII: A FOSS Operating System for e-Readers
Whether or not you personally agree with all the ideals of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), you’ve got to give them credit: they don’t mess around. They started by laying the groundwork for a free and open source operating system, then once that dream was realized, started pushing the idea of replacing proprietary BIOS firmware with an open alternative such as Libreboot. But apparently, even that’s not enough, as there’s still more freedom to be had. We’re playing 4D Libre Chess now, folks.
To flash your libre boot firmware on your libre OS running computer without any proprietary funny business, …read more
Continue reading Flash your Libre Firmware with a Libre Programmer
Years ago, while the GPLv3 was still being drafted, I got a chance to attend a presentation by Richard Stallman. He did his whole routine as St IGNUcius, and then at the end said he would be answering questions in a separate room off to the side. While the more causal nerds shuffled out of the presentation room, I went along with a small group of free software aficionados that followed our patron saint into the inner sanctum.
When my turn came to address the free software maestro, I asked what advantages the GPLv3 would have to a lowly hacker …read more
San Francisco company Kite ‘wants to do better’ after users object to its changes to Minimap for Atom Continue reading Start-up accused of undermining popular open-source tools
As an Apple user, I’ve become somewhat disillusioned over the past few years. Maybe it’s the spirit of Steve Jobs slowly vanishing from the company, or that Apple seems to care more about keeping up with expensive trends lately rather than setting them, or the nagging notion Apple doesn’t have my best interests as a user in mind.
Whatever it is, I was passively on the hunt for a new laptop with the pipe dream that one day I could junk my Apple for something even better. One that could run a *nix operating system of some sort, be made …read more
Continue reading Harrowing Story of Installing Libreboot on ThinkPad
The problem with Oracle v. Google is that everyone actually affected by the case knows what an API is, but the whole affair is being decided by people who don’t. Continue reading In Oracle v. Google, a Nerd Subculture Is on Trial
