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#freesoftware

111 posts79 participants16 posts today

Some days I'm so tired of upstream developers being so adverse to downstream maintainers. Like, it's not just the ungratefulness — it's like completely neglecting the tons of work we're putting into keeping things working. And they literally rely on our work (unless they're running their own distribution).

Yeah, sure, maybe you don't use #Gentoo. Maybe you use #Debian, or #Fedora, or #Arch, or their derivates, or some other independent distribution. Does that mean that Gentoo work is insignificant? What if the developers of your distribution are facing exactly the same problem? And even if they weren't, does that mean that upstreams using Gentoo should become adverse to the distribution you're using?

Yeah, sure, maybe you don't agree with one of our principles or another. Maybe you even are a Gentoo user, yet disagree with how Gentoo works. Well, even so, you're not the only Gentoo user out there. We're doing the best we can with what we have, and we're trying to make sure things work best for everyone in Gentoo. I'm not saying we're always right, but you really should have a good reason to despise all the work we've been doing.

Yeah, sure, maybe you don't use distribution #Python packaging at all, maybe you despise it entirely and wish it would all be burned down to the ground in favor of everyone using wheels from #PyPI, or whatever. But guess what — there are people who actually find it advantageous, and benefit from it, and want to use it. And there are projects that simply don't work in that ecosystem at all, and need a better package manager. And we're here, for them.

So, yeah, sure. Maybe you don't use the distribution I'm working on, nor any projects I'm working on. Maybe you disagree with me on every single principle, and don't see any purpose in any of my work. Maybe you will never use any of it. Maybe your friends or your family, or anyone you know or care about will even benefit from any of it. Still, there's a lot of people who do and who need this, and who are you to give them the digitus impudicus?

We just launched the Silent #FreeSoftware Memorabilia Auction. The first ten items are now open for bidding: u.fsf.org/466 This is your chance to get your very own personal souvenir of the FSF, from original GNU art to plush gnus that have been greeting visitors in the lobby of the FSF office for years and the very same VT220 that sat on the FSF's front desk.

Replied to Ravi Dwivedi

@ravi @fossunited Since we don't have any community members from #Bihar, this would mean people have to travel from UP and Delhi (we got two volunteers) and trains are all booked. So we have to look for tatkal or flights. We have some funds left from #PravConf, but more donations / sponsorships would help.

Conferences in places like Bihar is very important since they don't have an existing big Free Software community.

You can donate via prav.app/donate

prav.appDonate to Prav

Would you like to volunteer for the #Prav stall at the #BiharFOSS conference organized by @fossunited?

The event will be held at IIT Patna on the 22nd of March. For details, check fossunited.org/c/bihar/2025 .

More about Prav 👉 prav.app

I am going to present Prav there but it would be nice if someone joins. Also, it would be great to have someone to accompany me and distribute stickers and flyers.

fossunited.orgBiharFOSS 2025

digiKam, KDE's full-featured photo management software, releases version 8.6.0.

You can look forward to a smarter face management tool, an improved auto-tagging system that identifies elements in your images, fully automatic red-eye removal, and a new image quality feature that classifies images according to their aesthetic quality.

We also fixed 140 bugs!

digikam.org/news/2025-03-15-8.

#photography #OpenSource #FreeSoftware

@kde@lemmy.kde.social

✨💙 Rejoice, friends, as software freedom continues to soar with Linux-libre. Enjoy the release of 6.13.7-gnu, 6.12.19-gnu, 6.6.83-gnu, 6.1.131-gnu, 5.15.179-gnu, 5.10.235-gnu1 & 5.4.291-gnu1! Free as in freedom, not as in firmware blobs! 🚀 Every line of code respects your rights. No mystery, no surrender - just pure liberated computing! 🕊️ Use, study, change, share, & celebrate software freedom! 💪 GNU+Linux-libre FTW! fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linu #SoftwareFreedom #FreeSoftware #GNU #Linux #LinuxLibre

www.fsfla.org::[FSFLA]:: GNU Linux-libre project
Replied in thread

@rahulporuri @prav 2. #FreeSoftware development depending on proprietary platforms like #GitHub.
3. Locked on to proprietary messaging / social media platforms like #WhatsApp or X.com

#Prav is challenging WhatsApp, but it would be possible only if we convince a lot of people in our community first and then together, convince people outside the community as well. Due to network effects, this is much tougher challenge than GNU/Linux adoption.

Replied in thread

@rahulporuri @prav Glad to see an event we organized during our final year in 2005 is still going good after 20 years!

Thanks to all my juniors who kept the fire!

We have come a long way in 20 years and our challenges grew as well.

The big challenges I have identified,
1. Complete reliance on #Google for smart phone operating system. Big part of #android / google apps are proprietary. It is hard to flash a custom rom.