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A challenge for opensource today: The prevalence of cloud services & walled gardens helps minimize the meaningfulness of software freedom.
Free software started in an era where most of our software ran on our devices which we were free to reprogram (unless its e.g. a Nintendo). Early on PCs barely shipped with any software installed! If you updated that software to behave as you desire, you're the only one who could be harmed.
This is no longer the case today!
1/2!
I won't say internet services aren't a valuable addition to our toolbox, but we shouldn't use it when the only justification is financial. And that we should innovate ways (like CRDTs) to move beyond them!
As for walled gardens... Outlaw them? Out-compete them? What? Not easy!
1.5/1.5 Fin!
@alcinnz also many people have multiple devices (especially if you think family/household units) and increasingly value easy access to the same stuff/content/credentials etc across most of their devices (perhaps shared partially with other members of the family)
So until open source includes good alternatives for phones/tablets/smart watches as well as game consoles/tvs (or boxes connected to them) and laptops/desktops it likely has to coexist with iOS/ipadOS/Appletv or Android and misc TVOSes
@Rycaut I'm glad to see efforts being made here, but we must be patient! Its not easy! Let alone the challenge of breaking into the market...
Then talking about game consoles/TVs that brings up another interesting challenge: The entertainment & software industries like to reinforce each others dominance.
Then again all it takes to attack Hollywood/etc's dominance is a willingness to explore...
Also there's enough of us on Linux-based systems for Disney+ to loosen their screws a little...
@alcinnz Steam certainly has increased the number of games with Linux options and while not perhaps as good as native apps if services like Disney+ and others make content available via a web browser that’s a solid step towards making it available on a lot of devices (but of course may not handle every codec or feature)
(I’m not much of a video game player but friends who are rave about the Steam Deck as a Linux based way to play PC games see https://www.steamdeck.com/en/software)
@Rycaut I'm glad to see this!
But for the foreseeable future they'll only allow software they approve of to be able to play their videos. We've been advocating against that tendency & it hasn't made a difference, beyond some shape-shifting.
So personally I'm enjoying stepping outside the mainstream to enjoy Magus Elgar, The Red Panda Adventures, The Magnus Archives, Wolf359, Lackadaisy, Hi Nay, Wooden Overcoats, Zero Hours, etc, etc, etc!
Helps to show the fallacy of the demands for DRM!
@alcinnz Bollywood (India) and Nollywood (Nigeria) produce more movies than Hollywood (USA). Though not at the price point.
@andre What's their attitude about DRM? How do they conduct business?
I don't know whether or not they're helping the anti-DRM cause (Britain & NZ aren't), though I will remark on how severely overlooked their cinematic contribution is in my society.
@alcinnz I don't know.
Bollywood was at least popular for some time here.