@ber@social.tchncs.de

Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 10mo ago

Replying to

@oldperl@mastodon.online @jamesbritt@mastodon.social @mhkohne@mastodon.social @joshsjunkdrawer@mastodon.social @fsfe@mastodon.social As you can see from the article and the discussion here in the Fediverse: Some people expect #FSFE to go to places where Free Software and the Fediverse are not yet known. As far as I remember #FSFE stopped posting actively on Twitter (X) a long while ago and then only used the account to be findable. And later only as a placeholder to not get name squatted or miss-represented. It wasn't much effort. But as the platform deteriorated, even a tiny presence there is too much help for that antidemocratic platform. The deletion of the account is the end of a long process of decreasing interaction with the platform.

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 8mo ago

"For years, longtime #Firefox users have hung on while #Mozilla has pursued random directions, added advertiser-friendly features, and tried repeatedly to jump onto the AI bandwagon. But all those users want is a reliable, standards-compliant browser that gives them control over their web experience and protects their privacy. The result is that Firefox's usage has been declining for years.

Mozilla now has a new CEO who has one last chance to turn things around. A refocused Firefox determined to protect its users from an increasingly hostile web environment could regain users. A Firefox that continues to chase buzzwords or appease advertisers will sink without a trace."

#FreeSoftware

@lwn@fedi.lwn.net 's predictions for the new year are always worth a read
https://lwn.net/Articles/1052269/ :)

social.tchncs.de

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 6mo ago

RE: @gareth@tenforward.social

Try to hit the selection in star wars mode ...

tenforward.social

Gareth 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿: "Ok, today’s xkcd is glorious! [edit] I should pr…" - Ten Forward

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 6mo ago

Vuetify is web component framework for Vue and just like #Vue it is independent (so there is no large organisation that pays for most of it). We (@intevation@mastodon.social) use #Vuetify in a number of products and thus pay for it voluntarily. It is #FreeSoftware.

If you and others would pay a small amount, too. They can compensate more contributors and develop faster: https://github.com/vuetifyjs/vuetify/releases/tag/v4.0.4 :)

social.tchncs.de

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 6mo ago

RE: @fsfe@mastodon.social

When reading the newsletter, I remember why I wrote

https://blogs.fsfe.org/bernhard/2012/03/lets-end-all-free-software-projects-quickly/

> A “project” is always temporary, in the narrow sense of the term.

If we adopt a better name for long lasting initiatives like @fdroidorg@floss.social , we help #FreeSoftware to be understood and build well running organisations.

mastodon.social

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 10mo ago

Replying to

@bloodaxe@fosstodon.org @fsfe@mastodon.social to cite from the article: "We keep being active on some other proprietary platforms in order to reach a wider part of society, journalists, and decision makers." Some are @FreeSoftwareFoundationEurope@www.youtube.com or https://bsky.app/profile/fsfe.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy https://bsky.app/profile/fsfe.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy The best quality contents will be in the #Fediverse of course. ;-) And then there are conferences, articles in real newspapers and magazines and other opportunities ...

bsky.app

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@faket @threemaapp Did you read the article and the comments below it? Proton seems to have complied with a legal, valid request from Swish public authorities. If this report is true, then any company in Switzerland will have to comply with their legal rules (Like any organisation will have to comply to the local legal rules. Signal would also have to comply to a US national security letter as far as I know. Though the Signals operators always know the mobile phone number. While Threema will have a payment information trail to follow.) A good approach for sensible accounts for Proton, Threema, Mailbox and Posteo is to pay by cash (letter).

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@FrOSCon@bonn.social For more publicity, also publish your call for partners and other financial support possibilities prominently on https://froscon.org/

froscon.org

FrOSCon

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 9mo ago

RE: @lexelas@mstdn.io

From the announcement it seems that Bose publishes its API documentation, and even that does not allow you to use it fully looking at its licens.

Open Source (a newer term for #FreeSoftware) refers to https://opensource.org/osd. Where is the part of Bose that complies with that "open source definition"?

Maybe we have a case of "open source washing" in the announcement here.

It is a good step for Bose customers that they make a final release of their app and publish their API documentation. However if they really "open sourced" their speaker software, a third party could maintain the apps and do security updates. Even better for customers. ;-)

mstdn.io

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@threemaapp @faket Good point, thanks!

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 8mo ago

"human fracking

The use of information technology to exploit human attention in ways that are net counterproductive to the persons thus exploited
" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/human_fracking

Just learned about the term, reading
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jan/18/how-can-we-defend-ourselves-from-the-new-plague-of-human-fracking

I like the idea. So maybe they deserve some "attention".

Will read more on https://friendsofattention.org/about/ (though their
animation is somehow like an annoying tag. ;-))

#humanfracking #friendsofattention #bigtech

en.wiktionary.org

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 15mo ago

Replying to

@jmaris@eupolicy.social What about stopping to buy games with proprietary server needs? 🤷 *just saying*

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 15mo ago

Replying to

@dino Congratulations on the new release! 🎉

Just took the time and wrote up two usability regression I've noticed for our office and desktop usage.

https://github.com/dino/dino/issues/1724 (cannot see status (e.g. offline) in the roster)
https://github.com/dino/dino/issues/1725 (Close Conversation too far away from roster entry)

Hope it is helpful to improve dino! #FreeSoftware

GitHub

cannot see status (e.g. offline) in the roster anymore (usability regression for desktop and office use) · Issue #1724 · dino/dino

The usability problem: status cannot be seen from the roster (#1692) is not resolved The deliberate change of switching away from the graying out solution (as explained by #1612 (comment) ) has cre...

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@threemaapp @faket It is good to know about what is done and not done. As for a potential payment trail: If a payment is made via credit card and there is a valid judicial order previously, you maybe obliged to save where the payment came from. And the report it. Correct? That is a general difference to services where there is no potential payment trail. And it is very good that you offer the possibility to sync without proprietary services, use a Free Software variant of the client and offer the payment via cash (letter). (A letter still leaves a paper trail of course which could be handed over, so transport information would be extracted in an extreme case.)

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 15mo ago

Replying to

@jmaris@eupolicy.social I'd say that food and loans are more existential than computer online games. I'm not against some kind of regulation, but the title and the text of the initiative is painting a too simple picture. The situation depends on the type of the game. You cannot make many multiplayer games playable without server. Then on economic realities: If nobody pays for it any more, server cannot be kept running. We do have campaigns to explain about healthy food and you can still sell some "bad" food. Why not "bad" games. They are inexpensive and consumers can try different "publication" styles without risking their life. A too strict legislation might even itself lead to some, e.g. independence games, not being developed, because they cannot guarantee the legally required server years.

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Bernhard E. Reiter @ber@social.tchncs.de

· 5mo ago

Replying to

Hi @andrewg@mastodon.ie, thanks for responding. I've also send a response to your email to the gnupg-users mailinglist. (I think a mailinglist is better to have a more in-depth exchange.) To answer your question: I am indeed frustrated and exhausted. However my previous statement holds: if we want to get things together again (here and there), we need to be extra respectful of other people's positions and feelings. And I am trying to do this, in the little time I have to help the ecosystem. The longer gap may actually have helped to cool down some of the most heated arguments and thus may also open new possibilities. (BTW: Thanks for your work on the keyservers, hockeypuck and the OpenPGP ecosystem.) @GnuPG@mstdn.social @rob@social.afront.org

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