this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2023
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I would not agree with the general statement about FOSS. Some commercial products absolutely do edge out the free ones. And I am not sure it is only the limited funding, seeing the usability issues with Linux. I think Linus Tech Tips video series was a nice insight.
But for social platforms I do not even see a different way. FOSS is a must, especially with the inherent bias of algorithms. Commercial third party clients still could be beneficial.
How many of those commercial products are more than 1/2 FOSS though.
Really what we are talking about is last mile code really, yes that can cost money but I think its on the way, I remember when linux was unusable as a desktop.
I said it 20 years ago and I still believe it now, its not possible to monetize a social network to be both profitable and vibrant. Social networks are like public transit, at best you can hope to break even, maintaining the commons is just part of being in this world. We can't sit around and expect others to do it for us.
I think Linux usability is very good. The problem is the vast majority of Linux distros aren't great.
I switched to Fedora from windows a year or two ago, I'll never look back.
Same but Zorin OS.
About Linux, I feel Con Kolivas, a former Linux kernel dev said is very accurate. There could be a bug in the kernel that causes desktop use case go to a crawl or freeze can be ignored for years, but Oracle reports there is a bug in the server usecase that causes a 0.5% of performance lost once per month and the same day it will be fixed.
Enterprise use simply eclipse the focus of the devs to regular people use. Which just only highlights even more why the desktop experience improved so rapidly when Valve decided they wanted Linux for gaming. Simply there wasn't anyone that cared for the end user experience and wasn't running their own fork (yes, I am talking about Google).
I'm about utility. Online social engagement is a need. People who can't connect need a way to connect. This is a public utility, a social service. It needs to be streamlined, free, and as open as possible to anyone who wishes to participate.
It is a human right to connect. We shouldn't hide it beind any paywall, ad, company, entity or outside will. People have a right to enter the room, speak and listen without being attacked by anything.
Normally I'd just ask you to go outside and touch grass but I agree with you after the whole shitshow
Depends. While software like Inkscape and Blender are top notch competitors, stuff like Scribus and Gimp are not.
Hell, I would even pay for software if these devs would support Linux already. If the Affinity Suite came to Linux, I would never touch Adobe again.
This sort of thing is quite different technically.
With Inkscape, blender and gimp - the main draw is an extremely complicated UI that produces image files. A social network is just sending text around back and forth.
The beauty here is the activitypub spec. The way it works is like:
ActivityPub Protocol <- Lemmy Backend <- Lemmy Client
Building a replacement backend or client is comparatively trivial. Making a good one would be hard, of course, but a single developer could whip up something that's technically a lemmy client, or technically a activitypub backend over a weekend.
That decoupled layering, the idea that each bit just does one comparatively simple thing, is intentional.
If lemmy/kbin catch on (which it looks like they are), it will be not long at all before there are a a plethora of tools and clients cross platform.