dreiwert

joined 2 years ago
[–] dreiwert@szmer.info 1 points 2 years ago

This calls for some quantitative research: What is the critical mass of open access publications in some area from which it becomes feasible to fully boycott closed access research?

Or maybe we don't have the suitable tools for that task: Do we need a copyleft (or rather "citeleft"?) mechanism for scientific publications?

[–] dreiwert@szmer.info 4 points 2 years ago

The headline is misleading, as the article merely covers the decision of the Data Protection Commissioner of Hesse (one of Germany's 16 federal states). Many other federal states have a similar tendency by now, but in detail it can be very different, and in practise, the Data Protection Commissioners can be very patient when it comes to giving schools additional time to switch to other solutions.

[–] dreiwert@szmer.info 2 points 2 years ago

It would be interesting to find something within real-world behaviour of crows that requires this cognitive ability.

[–] dreiwert@szmer.info 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Big tech companies route loads of data through their data centers that could either be processed on the end users' devices, or that aren't needed at all for the services that help the end users. A comparison between the climate impact of all the big tech data center processing that is done for the sole purpose of the big tech companies and other factors relevant to climate would be both interesting and meaningful.

Edit: Funny to see downvoting without making a point. Regarding the latter mentioned source of serviceless resource wasting of big tech, see https://www.inkandswitch.com/slow-software/ (under "user-hostile work"). Regarding the former one, think about why your average smartphone keyboard implementation needs to phone home to the tech company's data center, while there are implementations that work right on the device. Removing all this stuff could most likely greatly reduce the resource usage of today's end user devices, and does not provide any useful service to the end users.

[–] dreiwert@szmer.info 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I didn't mean running on the top of some distro, but "native" compatibility to existing packaging. Snap/Flatpack/Nix etc. can also more or less run on the top of arbitrary distros, but I think more acceptance can be achieved if the packages are (at least source-level) compatible to something existing and widespread and run as first-class citizens there.

Not saying that Guix isn't innovative, useful or joyful, though. Just thinking that it might not work as an alternative for Debian in every case.

Will look into PureOS and Trisquel. Are their releases roughly corresponding to some releases of Debian or Ubuntu, respectively (e.g. package-version-wise)?

[–] dreiwert@szmer.info 3 points 2 years ago

Sounds exciting! Looking forward to see it on @fdroidorg@mastodon.technology .

[–] dreiwert@szmer.info 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What do you use on the server side? Do I need a dropbox account?

[–] dreiwert@szmer.info 6 points 2 years ago

This might create a bias towards large vendors with huge human resources to throw at maintenance. But it should be illegal to sell devices and hinder third parties to fix bugs and develop security upgrades, for example through closed software platforms, drivers and interfaces.

[–] dreiwert@szmer.info 1 points 2 years ago

So what? There are plenty of other ways to contribute to extra electronic waste, like boycotting user repair efforts: https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/21/23079058/apple-self-service-iphone-repair-kit-hands-on

[–] dreiwert@szmer.info 1 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Looks interesting, but to what extent is it compatible to other distributions, allowing for package-related or other reuse?

As much as an Ubuntu fork that removes that semi-proprietary snap stuff would be in a good position to build a user base quickly, so would now a Debian fork that keeps the on-device code licenses clean.

[–] dreiwert@szmer.info 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I understand the point, but I was thinking that there were already Linux distributions fitting into that niche...

[–] dreiwert@szmer.info 7 points 2 years ago

Boycotting efforts against digital souvereignty alone is not enough. But the efforts to build a regulative solution won't work without enough people willing to continue the boycott.

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