Introduction

We all know and hate the GNOME desktop environment. It’s the dreaded “anti-user” human interface guidelines, that, quite frankly, make Windows and macOS look perfectly usable. But what if I told you that our criticism stems from all the wrong reasons, and why you should give GNOME a second chance, or at least, a try. In this article I will make a case for using GNOME, and why it is by far the most unique desktop environment there is.

Introduction

I often take the time to think about the things that are important to me. Stuff like family, programming, life, philosophy, psychology, free software and Linux, among many. And it made me wonder: What makes Linux so special? What makes it stand out from all the other Operating Systems? How does Linux take effect on your life where other systems don’t? Of course, the GOTO argument would be all the technical aspects, its respect of privacy, and the users freedom in comparison to proprietary systems. You could also argue that the thing that makes Linux outstanding is its general system security, as in being basically the safest system you could use.

Introduction

Every developer has at least heard of JavaScript. The dreaded language that runs a lot of the internets logic. But did you know that it harbors great peril for not just developers, but also normal end users, no matter which system they all run. This danger comes from so-called “non-free JavaScript-implementations”.

Digital Slaves

This non-free JavaScript does, first and foremost, a lot of things. Among the most harmful are Telemetry, Espionage, and many more. These practices harm the end user in many different ways.

Let’s say, you are the average man. You spend a lot of time on the internet, playing video games or watching porn. Are you happy? I don’t mean do you feel good right now, I’m talking about true happiness. So, let me ask you again: Are you really happy? If your answer is yes: Congratulations, you are a liar. If it is no, let me tell you something:

I was there once. I know what it feels like to be deeply unhappy. Rotting away in a smelly, messy room, with no work to your name, no apparent purpose and using porn and videogames as a crutch. In fact, I still do. It’s been quite a while since I discovered self-improvement, but only recently did I decide to take it seriously.

Introduction

We all know that nonfree (or proprietary) software is bad for you. Between all the closed code, and all the pleads for trust, there is not much else that you can say about it. But not many people talk about the lock-in that nonfree software creates with many different practises, and it is really Spooky. In this article, I will further elaborate on this spook, and how to counteract it with free and freedom-respecting software.

Introduction

Coraline Ada Ehmke. As a free software activist, this name only means one thing: Trouble. But what do I mean by that? I mean that the self-proclaimed “open-source troublemaker” could be the greatest threat to free software as we know it. And you’ll see why it is as dramatic as I make it out to be.

“The Hippocratic License”

But what does a single programmer have to do with the death of free software? Well, she is the original creator of the “Hippocratic License”, a so-called open-source license, that, in short, only allows the use of software for “ethical purposes”. Now, the problem with ethical software is that it is non-free in its nature, since the use of software for unethical purposes is prohibited under this license. Another problem arises when we try to determine ethics in conjunction with software. What even is “ethical”? Is it some form of law? Or are you appealing to common sense? Or do you want to go the “liberal” route and say that it’s only ethical as long as it agrees with your agenda? Now, what I want to say is that the definition of ethics is muddy at best.

Introduction

Nonfree software is everywhere. And it really shows. At this point in time, I’d argue that there is more nonfree software in the wild than there is free software. And it begs some important questions. First of all, why all the fuss about it? Shouldn’t we just let it exist? And secondly, why advocate for free software, when the most popular products based on proprietary licenses make up the bulk of the so-called industry standards? In this article, we will go through the pitfalls of nonfree software, and why it is bad for you, the end user.