[ prog / sol / mona ]

prog


how much should we tolerate closed-source programs?

1 2022-05-25 05:13

not "infrequently" i find myself in situations where i ask myself this question and i do not know what to do (;´c`)

right now i am using rtpatch, a binary diff tool, which is not libre
yet is far superior to the libre options we have, and i am right now using windows ten, as rtpatchworks best on nt

sometimes i wonder what is better to prioritize: efficiency or freedom

2 2022-05-25 05:29

tolerate

Yeah. Use whatever fits you. But don't go QQ when people make fun of your non-libre choices.

3 2022-05-25 05:36

There should be zero tolerance of great evils such as closed source programs. Do not compromise your freedom. Do not be a hypocrite. Do not be a sell out and a traitor. Boycott all closed source software. Refuse to associate yourself with people who use or otherwise support closed source software (whether directly or indirectly).

4 2022-05-25 05:37

I don't mind giving away some luxuries to keep as most of my freedom as possible.

Even if there are better options that are proprietary I would rather use an inferior option that respects my freedom, that can also be complemented by other libre programs to get a complete experience, even if I have to juggle between programs to get the experience the proprietary option would get me in one place.

5 2022-05-25 06:12

To tolerate closed-source programs we first need programs (I can not call those piles of garbage code shitted out by half-literate script kiddies as programs). First we need to write some programs and then (not) tolerate closed-source ones of them.

6 2022-05-25 12:52

A lot of so-called "libre" software is awful, and explicitly harmful to one's freedom and health (eg web browsers such as firefox), they are too complex for anyone to properly audit (again, firefox, systemd, X11), even if they have no explicit backdoors, they probably have hundreds of exploitable bugs all over the place and the three-letter-ag's know about them. A lot of proprietary software, on the other hand, may be comparatively innocuous, it is already restricted by the os, and can be further virtualized.
I would of course prefer open-source programs everywhere, but the wuole distinction between "leebray" and otherwise is an artificial one and strictly living by it is being an ideologue. Moreover, the term "free software" excludes many ooen source projects simply because they have a different (more permissive, it turns out) license.
I don't have time to audit every software that I compile or that I get as binary from my distribution's package manager. Even if I did read the code, I wouldn't be able to pay enough attention to spot malicious code or dangerous bugs.

7 2022-05-26 00:07

>>6

Libre = open source

Anyone who says otherwise are fags.

8 2022-05-26 04:21

If you are reading this post all summer/sol/stice fags will infiltrate prog within seven days. To undo this curse you need to copy this and paste it in 20 other threads. I'm so, so sorry, please forgive me.

9 2022-05-26 07:20

>>8

all summer/sol/stice fags will infiltrate prog within seven days

That's fine with me.

10 2022-05-27 09:06

>>1

how much should we tolerate closed-source programs?

Zero tolerance. In fact, I would go as far as to suggest that you should avoid everything that is not licensed under the GNU Affero GPL.

11 2022-05-27 12:32

>>6
So many logical fallacies I don't even know where to start from. I run every piece of software made after 2007 in firejail, be it open- or closed-source.

And having source code is not only required for finding CVEs, it is also needed to replace that shitty button with something nice looking or to f--king rip that annoying popup dialog the hell out or to fix that sudden idiotic lock up of cursor - well, you got it.

12 2022-05-28 03:33

>>11

I run every piece of software made after 2007 in firejail, be it open- or closed-source.

Obsessive. I usually run it with `firejail -v ...` for a couple of times and if nothing seems wrong I install them as a part of the system.

13 2022-05-28 13:22

>>11
What happened after 2007?

14 2022-05-28 14:24

>>13
The peak of emo culture.

15 2022-05-28 18:19

>>13
Anon discovered firejail

16 2022-05-29 01:13

>>13
limewire

17 2022-05-31 13:57

>>16
frostwire

18 2022-05-31 14:33 *

>>13
school days, the anime, the boat

19 2022-05-31 20:52

Spe for yourself millenial waste we big boys had to go to war walk 100 miles to school for water under the snow the harsh sun the evil communist threat okay? You don't know shit.

20 2022-05-31 23:32 *

>>19
Try to think of an institution that lives 100% on taxpayer money, gets a roughly $900 billion yearly budget, practices forced communal living, communal showering, communal eating, communal exercising, communal entertainment nights, erasure of individuality and complete subordination to the commune.

If, hypothetically speaking, such an institution existed, it would have no choice but to resort to constant brainwashing to avoid new recruits accidentally realizing what system of organization they living under after they've signed up.

21 2022-06-01 07:57

>>20
That sounds like paradise. It is the perfect structure for a free software commune.

22 2022-06-01 20:36

>>20
i am feeling way too dumb for never having thought of this before
i am in a state of appalling perplexity lol; you must be an interesting person to be around

23 2022-06-02 00:49

>>20
Wow dude you just blew me you just blew my mind

24 2022-06-02 14:52

On 1 January 2022, a bug was reported for Microsoft Exchange systems where email delivery would fail. An internal malware scanner (enabled by default since 2013) used the date and time as a signed 32-bit integer. The integer would change during the new year to 2,201,010,001 (with the first two digits representing the year), surpassing the maximum value for this data type.

This is the type of shit you get with industry leading enterprise grade proprietary software

25 2022-06-02 15:03

>>24
im still using vb6 for good lol

26 2022-06-02 19:05

I'm planning to create a textboard, any suggestions?

27 2022-06-02 19:13

Don't

28 2022-06-02 21:35

>>26
Release it under the AGPL.

29 2022-06-02 21:56 *

>>26
use logo proglang

30 2022-06-03 01:38

>>26
Use Emacs Lisp. GNU Emacs has a built-in TCP server.

If you are particularly adventurous, you could even write a textboard using Vimscript. Sockets can be created using Vim's "channels".

31 2022-06-03 01:50

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32 2022-06-03 06:10
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33 2022-10-13 17:28

Nothing is closed source if you have a good decompiler

34 2022-10-14 02:58 *

>>33
LARP

35 2022-10-15 02:01

i like libre software,
but how do the programmers get fed?

36 2022-10-15 06:39

>>35

but how do the programmers get fed?

Why do you concern yourself with such fleeting worldly matters when the art of programming is on a totally different plane of existence?

37 2022-10-15 11:18 *

>>35
https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.en.html

“Won't everyone stop programming without a monetary incentive?”

Actually, many people will program with absolutely no monetary incentive. Programming has an irresistible fascination for some people, usually the people who are best at it. There is no shortage of professional musicians who keep at it even though they have no hope of making a living that way.

But really this question, though commonly asked, is not appropriate to the situation. Pay for programmers will not disappear, only become less. So the right question is, will anyone program with a reduced monetary incentive? My experience shows that they will.

For more than ten years, many of the world's best programmers worked at the Artificial Intelligence Lab for far less money than they could have had anywhere else. They got many kinds of nonmonetary rewards: fame and appreciation, for example. And creativity is also fun, a reward in itself.

Then most of them left when offered a chance to do the same interesting work for a lot of money.

What the facts show is that people will program for reasons other than riches; but if given a chance to make a lot of money as well, they will come to expect and demand it. Low-paying organizations do poorly in competition with high-paying ones, but they do not have to do badly if the high-paying ones are banned.

38 2022-10-15 12:38

>>35
I charge money for my time. If I estimate a project to cost me 50 hours of my time, I will quote for 50 hours of my time.

39 2022-10-15 16:33

>>35

but how do the programmers get fed?

They will be fed by the commune to which they have dedicated their lives. Total subordination to the commune will be rewarded with regular nourishment, until such time that the programmer's productivity falls below a critical threshold.

40 2022-10-15 19:47 *

They will be fed by the commune to which they have dedicated their lives. Total subordination to the commune will be rewarded with regular nourishment

But the military rarely releases anything useful, e.g. Ghidra, so this model of living 100% on taxpayer money in communes separate from society doesn't seem to work all that well for releasing software.

41 2022-10-17 08:40

>>1
To hell with closed source, should we tolerate programs which can not work without internet?

42 2022-10-17 08:57

>>39
That somehow reminds me scientific research.

43 2022-10-18 01:44

>>1

how much should we tolerate closed-source programs?

Zero tolerance. When members of the free software movement infiltrate governments and supranational organizations, they will seize power and ban closed-source programs. The issue of combating closed-source software proliferation would finally have the high priority that it deserves. Closed-source software would be illegal, and will be given the same status as illegal narcotics and illegal weapons.

44 2022-10-18 10:19 *

>>43
In Australia it's been illegal since 2018 to refuse to comply with a government order ("notice") to put a backdoor for the government into encryption software.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/09/australias-world-first-anti-encryption-law-should-be-overhauled-independent-monitor-says

Australia's world-first anti-encryption law should be overhauled, independent monitor says
Attorney general should be stripped of the power to force tech companies to help security agencies potentially spy on the public

The legislation increases penalties for criminal suspects who refuse to unlock devices such as phones and creates a new framework for law enforcement agencies to request or compel technical assistance from tech companies, even to create new capabilities such as backdoors to get around the encryption in some of their products.

Renwick said the report’s central recommendations were to remove the power from agency heads to issue technical assistance notices (TANs) and from the attorney general to approve technical capability notices (TCNs).

45 2022-10-20 03:36

Meh, what an uninteresting question

If a piece of software solves your problem, use it. If you can’t deal with the closed source nature of the software, then either use the open source one, make an open source tool yourself, or move on.

46 2022-10-20 05:41

>>45
One of problems with such a software is that it also solves some more "problems" which you didn't ask to solve.

47 2022-10-21 01:28

>>46
The extra features justify the high prices of proprietary software.

48 2022-10-21 05:06

Nothing can justify the harm that non-free software inflicts upon society.

49 2022-10-22 02:55

>>49

What kind of harm

50 2022-10-22 02:56

>>49
>>48

51 2022-10-22 11:13

>>49
Users who own their own computers are willingly making the choice to allow other people to control their own computing life. The harm is that users have the choice to be subservient to the owners of the non-free software to get the software to work as the user desires. Users choose to be helpless to help themselves and they choose to be divided from sharing software with their society. The one and only way to have the freedom for users to control their own computer is to reject non-free software and only accept free software.

52 2022-10-23 13:36

>>45
Recently I've bought a multicooker. A pretty advanced model, with volumetric heating and fuzzy temperature control. I've tested it on some recipes and it cooks really well and evenly, even my mom can't do so. Some day I tried to make it to cook me a breakfast. It has that delay timer, so I can load ingredients in the evening and delay cooking until I get up, take a shower etc. I've put milk, oats, some sugar and salt, closed the lid, turned on power, entered the menu... just to find out that the delay timer has only 30, 60 and 90 min. choices.

I have a hermetic tank (which is not a thing you can 3D-print) with not-so-cheap heating elements positioned in specially chosen places and a temperature sensor. I have a complex PIC connected to all this stuff to conduct it in an ensemble of cooking magic. And I can't use all this advanced technology because some chinese genius decided that 90 minutes ought to be enough for anybody!

53 2022-10-24 13:32

>>52
Chinese engineers work in 9-9-6 schedule, 90 min. of sleep is enough for them. Probably you need an export model.

54 2022-10-27 12:24

>>52
Smartphones are my personal pain. I get used to record phone calls but recent phones can't do this. The phone has a codec, an SD card, the signal is passing through CPU and RAM - all the hardware is there. But you can't record the signal, just cause. Moreover, in older phones this feature is present. So this is just a software problem. Just some `if` put in the wrong place. But I can't do anything neither with that `if` nor with anything at all in my phone because the phone is boot-locked.

55 2022-10-29 01:29

Ah, twas simpler times.

56 2022-10-29 01:31

In all seriousness albeit i actually have a old phone and a new one because I, like you prefer old software it is much more malleable than new.

57 2022-11-22 00:14

>>56
it is true

last year i bought a galaxy note 20 and there are so many options tied to the pen, lol
but i only use the pen for writing quick notes
i think 3/4 of the features on the phone are useless to me

i used the galaxy note 4 for almost a decade, it was more useful to me
if palmtops were not so "thick" i would even use them again ;T-T)

58 2022-11-22 14:34

>>54
I don't know about your phone but on many the phone call actually doesn't go through the application processor. Usually the codec runs on the modem itself and that's hooked up to a bunch of muxes which connect to the speaker/microphone.

But yeah I just gave up on smartphones. They're hopeless. I used a Pinephone for a year and that made me realize there's nothing you actually need a smartphone for.

59 2022-11-22 20:01

>>47 is a criminally underrated comment.

60 2022-11-23 05:02

>>47
In the modern world you need to pay for the absence of extra features.

61 2022-11-26 04:28

You should decompile the binary, do some RE, then make a "libre" version

62 2022-11-26 19:50

Implying you can run code on your device

63 2022-12-02 08:21

Please write the libre version in Rust lang, since Rust focuses on memory safety.

64 2022-12-02 08:37

Libre = open source

Anyone who says otherwise are fags.

Sybase Open Watcom Public License shows the little difference between Libre and Open-Source: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html#Watcom ,it says "Deploy" includes many private use cases, so that license is stronger than AGPL. So Sybase Open Watcom is non-libre due to its strong copyleft that's stronger than AGPL, however, it's open-source software.

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