libre

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Welcome to libre

A comm dedicated to the fight for free software with an anti-capitalist perspective.

The struggle for libre computing cannot be disentangled from other forms of socialist reform. One must be willing to reject proprietary software as fiercely as they would reject capitalism. Luckily, we are not alone.

libretion

Resources

Free Software, Free Society provides an excellent primer in the origins and theory around free software and the GNU Project, the pioneers of the Free Software Movement.
Switch to GNU/Linux! If you're still using Windows in $CURRENT_YEAR, flock to Linux Mint!; Apple Silicon users will want to check out Asahi Linux.
Social Media Recommendations:

The Linux Experiment: Weekly news host for Linux/libre software related news.
Nicco Loves Linux: Developer for KDE who makes interesting videos.
David Revoy: An incredible artist with a cool webcomic, all done with GNU/Linux.
Michael Horn: Makes videos about his various experiences with Linux.

Rules

Be on topic: Posts should be about free software and other hacktivst struggles. Topics about general tech news should be in the technology comm or programming comm.
Avoid using misleading terms/speading misinformation: Here's a great article about what those words are. In short, try to avoid parroting common Techbro lingo and topics.
Avoid being confrontational: People are in different stages of liberating their computing, focus on informing rather than accusing. Debatebro nonsense is not tolerated.
All site-wide rules still apply

Artwork

Xenia was meant to be an alternative to Tux and was created (licensed under CC0) by Alan Mackey in 1996.
Comm icon (of Xenia the Linux mascot) was originally created by @ioletsgo
Comm banner is a close up of "Dorlotons Degooglisons" by David Revoy (CC-BY 4.0) for Framasoft

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Windows users, why don't you use/try Linux? (hexbear.net)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'm curious as to what everyone's reasons are! The Linux desktop has came quite a far ways in the last few years and is improving every day. I'd say for most people, Linux could easily replace Windows as their daily driver nowadays.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Most people have a valid excuse, like their one really important software or favorite hentai game doesn't work under wine. For example, I wanted to buy a specific android tablet, but a small number of cool exclusive features are windows only, which is annoying af. Do I subject myself to full-time popups, nagware, random restarts, fake restarts, etc. of windows, do I dual-boot and have to restart my computer for weird context switching, do I own 2 computers, or shall I forgo that one one cool software/feature?

If you're thinking you'd really like a minimalist, classic desktop experience, like say a windows 98 vibe but also frugal on your GPU/RAM/CPU stuff, I heavily recommend the MATE with brisk-menu installed.

The most beginner friendly version of think is the official https://ubuntu-mate.org/ ISO.

Personally, I prefer debian for servers, and Garuda (arch) for desktops/laptops. Garuda has a lot of desktop environment options, I use the Garuda MATE ISO. Garuda does a lot of hand-holding for you in general, but also has a lot of gamer specific things.

Another thing, I like using my computer to actually do things. I don't think dicking around for hours/days because some random thing (your OS, or drivers, to be specific) doesn't work by default is fun or interesting. It's something most linux evangelists seem to not understand about normal people, and when normal people use windows, the network effect usually forces windows on me somehow. Ubuntu MATE and Garuda MATE have been pretty good about "just working". Your luck on brand new/obscure hardware laptops is going to be tested.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

I agree with this, although it's gotten a lot better in recent years but there is still a ways to go before I can install Linux on my grandma's laptop and just hand it back to her without worrying that it will break 6 months down the line. Although, I guess that's what things like Debian are for.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

I don't think dicking around for hours/days because some random thing (your OS, or drivers, to be specific) doesn't work by default is fun or interesting. It's something most linux evangelists seem to not understand about normal people

The Windows version of this is forcing updates on you when you want Windows to fuck off. And it has been this way since at least XP. So many people went to sleep with a Win 10 PC and woke up with a Win 11 PC.