Man Tries to Live an Open Source Life for a Year

http://www.shareable.net/blog/kicking-off-a-year-of-open-source

by blancarro • 14 years ago

68 51 14 years ago

shareable.net

Devilboy• 14 years ago

RMS does this every year

possibilistic• 14 years ago

Insightful point. I came here to say, "How is it going without the binary blobs?", but RMS certainly manages.

Even as a Linux user, I doubt I could ever go completely FOSS. (Or that I would ever want to.)

LukeShu• 14 years ago

I went ~1 year using just one binary blob[1], and it's been about ~.5 years since I replaced the WiFi card that it was for, and have gone 100% FOSS.

I'm extremely happy with Parabola GNU/Linux (one of the FSF endorsed distros), both as an OS, and as a community.

[1] It was for the iwl3495, and it was actually the only blob on my system--I was manually patching a Linux-libre kernel to re-add that one blob.

duaneb• 14 years ago

I went OSS only for many years. It's not that hard if you use ethernet and don't need 3d acceleration. Could the average person do it? Definitely not.

icebraining3• 14 years ago

rms uses an open hardware MIPS netbook made in China. According to the Debian wiki, "It is the only laptop with a free BIOS (PMON) and wireless support that doesn't require binary blobs."

Silhouette2• 14 years ago

He also recommends not using mobile phones, and reads the web using wget. Software freedoms are all very well, but I don't think many people would consider regressing about 20 years technologically a price worth paying.

While there are abuses in the worlds of business and government today that might (might) have been prevented if we had insisted on open code and/or open data all along, I am reasonably confident that the various power imbalances as we learn to cope with things like the Internet will have been corrected long before 2032. I don't know what the technological, social and political landscapes will look like by then, but if I were a betting man I'd go with something much more open in most respects than we have today but with a renewed emphasis on personal privacy when it matters.

icebraining3• 14 years ago

RMS doesn't read the web using wget because it's the only free software way. It's not like there aren't free browsers, even in gNewSense.

jiggy2011• 14 years ago

IIRC he has a bot use wget then mail the page to him. He does this because it means that he will be able to read the page offline as he travels a lot.

If you want fully open browsing you can always use IceWeazel:

http://www.geticeweasel.org/

Zigurd• 14 years ago

Conventional mobile phones have become (some say they always were) Big Brother tracking and surveillance devices. The amount of surveillance your are subject to reduces the value of mobile phones. For some people, reduces it so much as to make them, even when balanced against their usefulness, undesirable.

As for regressing 20 years, how often are you able to pick up an incoming call right away? Your phone is 90% of the time a mini Internet tablet, not a portable version of a land-line phone.

The privacy issue isn't just theoretical. There is a blacklist of more than 3000 activist construction workers maintained by police and UK companies. Could the people on that blacklist have kept themselves under the radar by paying closer attention to communications privacy?

vacri• 14 years ago

If someone's doing an unusual thing, why does it matter that somone else has done it before?

bntly• 14 years ago

Because it makes it far less odd?

a3_nm• 14 years ago

RMS is only concerned about the freedom of software on computers. He does not care as much about the freedom of object designs and artistic works.

dsr_• 14 years ago

I suppose he'll have to start with defining which licenses he thinks are acceptable. CC-SA? Probably. CC-BY-NC-ND? Maybe? Maybe not?

How about patents? Trademarks?

softbuilder3• 14 years ago

Toilet paper. Is there open source toilet paper? I don't think anyone is 3D printing that yet.

knieveltech• 14 years ago

Pinecone?

DrJ• 14 years ago

water

noonespecial2• 14 years ago

The source for toilet paper is always available. You are free to compile your own. Personally, I prefer the "Charmin" distro. I think their current release is "squeeze".

softbuilder3• 14 years ago

You don't find the license restrictive?

tomrod3• 14 years ago

Poison Ivy/Oak: DOS of the TP world.

jancborchardt• 14 years ago

Got you covered in terms of web apps: http://libreprojects.net

blancarro2• 14 years ago

very cool resource. Thanks. Any other lists like this, for instance for hardware or desktop apps?

Or whatever else.

icebraining3• 14 years ago

There's the Free Software Directory: http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page

cheap• 14 years ago

... Grows a Beard.

blancarro2• 14 years ago

Yes, good point about RMS.

Thinking about hosting a discussion about this. Seems like there's a lot of knowledge out there. Any interest?

Or maybe there is already a forum for this. Pointers welcome.

orangethirty• 14 years ago

I don't go as far as strcitly using open source, but I've managed to improve my productivity with a lot of open source software. To me, the software I use is just well designed, quick, and hackable. The only non-open source software I still use is the one included with Ubuntu, the one in my cell phone (non-smartphone (runs java)), my appliances (Linux probably, not no source), and the code that runs in my cars computer. Could I survive without closed software? Not yet. Though I keep looking for ways to replace closed systems with open ones.

mbell2• 14 years ago

FTA: "I'm not buying any proprietary or traditionally copyrighted products unless all other options are exhausted."

I'm pretty baffled by his mention of copyright here. The linux kernel is 'open source' by most people's standards yet the copyrights are held by thousands of people. Living a modern life with only open source products is very doable, living with only products which have no copyright would be almost impossible

mwilcox• 14 years ago

Key word being traditionally

mbell2• 14 years ago

What is that even supposed to mean?

dbecker• 14 years ago

I don't really understand what it means for physical items like shoes to be open source in the sense that some software is.

Users are already free to modify their shoes. And even if you had a video showing how the shoes were made, that isn't enough to replicate the shoes unless you have the machinery and dexterity to make shoes.

He also claims he wants to be open source in "how I get around." What would it mean for walking to be open source or closed source? Is it "open source" to ride a bus?

nrp2• 14 years ago

Consider that shoe piracy is actually pretty prevalent. You are free to make and modify shoes, but you are not free to sell copies (knockoffs, as they are commonly known) of existing closed source shoes.

jsilence2• 14 years ago

Actually you are free to sell an exact copy of shoes or other clothing als long as you don't copy the trademark logo.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/johanna_blakley_lessons_fro...

daveasaurus• 14 years ago

> I don't really understand what it means for physical items like shoes to be open source in the sense that some software is.

Tangentially related, but despite the article's definition of open source: "It's definitely not just software", it's a peeve of mine nonetheless to hear the term "open source" applied in non-software/programming contexts. Especially with some of the examples you've pointed out:

> He also claims he wants to be open source in "how I get around." What would it mean for walking to be open source or closed source? Is it "open source" to ride a bus?

Not sure if I'm alone on this.

Gormo• 14 years ago

Why is the term "open source" not applicable to any context in which the design of a product is distinct from its final form, and in which that design is conventionally covered by copyrights or patents?

If an architect released a set of standard building plans under an open license, would that not be legitimately "open source"?

vasco• 14 years ago

"Open source life for a year"

scroll

Macbook.

devgutt• 14 years ago

This is strange indeed. He provides some explanation in FAQ (but I don't buy it)

*http://yearofopensource.net/faq/

gaving• 14 years ago

Yeah, your EFI won't be open source.

More like "I used linux for a year"

insertnickname• 14 years ago

He should buy one of those Lemote laptops Stallman uses.

Man Tries to Live an Open Source Life for a Year

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