this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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Thought for the day
What are your thoughts on open source?
Open source software, science, repair manuals / right to repair movement etc..
I am firmly on the pro-open source side of the argument. Other than at work, I use Linux on everything (Android is still kiinda Linux). I will generally choose the open alternative, though if there is no compelling open alternative I will buy the closed source version. See CAD software / industrial software.
This is the way.
I've been a stoic OSS user professionally and personally for almost my entire career.
Of every tool I've encountered the OSS one has been superior or I've been able to contribute to make it so.
Familiarity with one or the other clouds this. I initially hated StarOffice because it wasn't exactly like Office97 (or which ever version was contemporaneous)... Now LibreOffice is just fine TYVM.
LibreOffice is fine but I don't think you could argue it's superior. I much prefer working with tables and pivot tables in excel.
GIMP is great and I prefer it over photoshop but I still think arguments could be made that photoshop is still way ahead of GIMP.
But for sure there are many FOSS tools that are the leaders in their areas.
That's was I was meaning by "familiarity". The unfamiliar tool is subjectivity worse.
I shudder to think how much money Adobe pours into Photoshop; but yes, that investment makes for a powerful product, that a free one is almost as good for many users is amazing.
For sure. I should try harder to give it a go, but would probably need to rebuild my stuff from scratch as opening even slightly complex excel files in Calc feels very clunky.
It is amazing. GIMP is really a posterchild for open source. But I do have trouble with things that are simple in photoshop. I remember trying to cut something out of a picture and have it fill in the background (say, if the rest of the image has trees in the background it should seemlessly continue this into the removed area). It's possible, but I think I had to find some extension listed in a forum post from 10 years earlier. Photoshops technology has andvanced a lot in 10 years, it would be nice to see more adhancement like this in GIMP.
There's also free AI tools you can use online to automatically cut out people or objects from backgrounds. Saves heaps of time
Yeah, but depending on the photo I don't like uploading my files to online services I've never heard of. There's only a very small number I'd trust, and I'd much prefer offline software.
pro open source, though I use a complete mix of all the various flavours of that & closed source software both personally & in work. In work i'm constantly advocating that we contribute financially to open source projects, not always successfully unfortunately. For all the touted efficiencies of business, they're just as likely to throw a mil at a closed source commercial product than deploy their own build of an open source one.
Yes. Love Louis Rossmann, and Linux.
Just replaced my Note 5 phone battery, though I have to buy a new back cover, because it cracked while I was heating up the glue with my hair dryer. Only $7 from China, anyway - and I get to choose a new color.
Open source is the only hope for a technological future that doesn't fuck us in the ass constantly.
I do my best to use open source where practical. In particular I like where companies find a model that allows them to generate revenue with open source software, as it tends to generate better supported software. But there are some awesome sponsored projects like all the ones KDE does.
I run linux on my personal laptop as a daily driver and it works great for me. I use Android on my phone, and am on the lookout for a cheap secondhand Pixel 7 as I'm keen to give GrapheneOS a go.
Having science publically funded but then you have to pay a journal to read the paper that the researchers had to pay to be published in... is crazy. Luckily these days it's pretty easy to find the original papers online if you know where to look. I'd be pretty happy to have requirements for free access to research done with public money.
I'm a big fan of right to repair. We make so much ewaste. Someone (consumer NZ?) tested out a bunch of returns processes using GPS trackers, deliberately causing really easy to repair faults (from memory they used blenders and just detatched an internal wire). Places like Kmart made no repair attempt. Their policy is basically to send all warranty returns to landfill and replace with a new one.
It's insane and something needs to change.