Notices by Dave Lane 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz), page 4

@alcinnz I try to avoid those sorts of depersonalising labels, as they load a lot of pejorative innuendo (much of which isn't understood by everyone) and a lot of unwarranted by-catch. @msw @lwriemen @downey @skyfaller

If you want to see how TechSoup is railroading NGOs/Charities into a full dependence on proprietary software (note: they actively avoid mentioning #FOSS options), see attached screenshot. I consider the organisation to be a menace, disingenuously misinforming vulnerable organisations to benefit its real funders, 'big tech'. If there was any justice, their name would be mud. They are a horrible, self-serving organisation selling themselves as a trusted ally to the under-resourced tech-ignorant.

@wizzwizz4 probably not, as it would require a lot of resources - like what a gov't regional development fund might be applied to, if gov'ts were smart about tech and saw #FOSS as digital 'critical infrastructure' and funded it like they fund physical critical infrastructure. Sadly, pretty uniformly around the globe, they're not. Not even slightly. They're almost all entirely in the pockets of big tech. Corruption is pervasive.

@PhenomX6 I similarly consider the promotion of 'weak' #FOSS licenses to be disingenuous. Certainly anyone who promotes them to be 'more free'. That's entirely a question of perspective... and it implicitly asserts that only proprietary software can provide returns to developers. Which, based on personal experience, I can say is false. @webmink

@alcinnz I think it's important for me, as a matter of good faith, to be transparent about what factors play into my impression of someone else's motives in a exchange (or clash) of values. It allows them to see how I'm forming my impression and allows them to provide arguments for mitigating those factors. I'm endeavouring not to imply anything. My aim is to be explicit where ever possible.
@msw @downey @skyfaller

@alcinnz I'm not implying anything except that vested interests create a strong incentive for contra-indicated behaviour, and that has to be taken into account. I also think that there are many who find it useful to claim they're "trying to change' a known bad actor 'from the inside' while drawing a massive salary paid for by proprietary software and user exploitation. 1/2 @msw @downey @skyfaller

@alcinnz Based on my 30 years of keen observation, those who succumb to that temptation are substantially more likely to change their definition of 'good' to include themselves and their employer than they are to shift their employer's culture for the better. I strongly believe that public corporations are inherently irredeemable - https://davelane.nz/megacorps 2/2
@msw @downey @skyfaller

@alcinnz sorry, Adrian. We've got to call out those who have vested interests and remember, at some level of seniority (which I strongly suspect Matt meets or exceeds), who we choose to work for is an ethical decision, and we need to take responsibility (and hold others responsible) for that. @msw @downey @skyfaller

@msw of course, if your bio is any indication of your affiliations, you could be accused of having a vested interest in promoting that line as well. It's certainly consistent with what someone with a deeper loyalty to their employer than to their espoused principles might say. @alcinnz @downey @skyfaller

@msw I think that accepting resources from corporations who are well known to actively undermine #Copyleft is unfortunately not a neutral act. It signals an implicit acceptance of those donors' actions, and an obligation from the OSI to give them the benefit of the doubt. We need to convince democratic gov'ts to fund #FOSS as digital critical infrastructure, and shun corporations and their donations entirely. A smart gov't would recognise that. Few, if any, are. @alcinnz @downey @skyfaller

@webmink I'm sorry that it's hurtful. If the OSI was more transparent about the 'enemies' you're fighting, I'd be more understanding. From my perspective, the OSI is far too willing to be seen to tolerate bad corporate behaviour. I'd love to see OSI promote a principled position in what is a deeply ethically conflicted milieu, where almost all the bad actors are corporate 'fair-weather friends' of open source, who consistently undermine #FOSS at every opportunity. We all need to pick a side.

@downey I think that's fair. @webmink I think you folks do need to confront the fact that you're seen as explicitly lacking #FOSS principle - expedient supporters of the 'open source' development methodology. I can't personally embrace or even respect that perspective.

@downey yes, I haven't completely given up on them yet, as I have on the Linux Foundation, but I'm certainly very sceptical these days. I'm not an ally of 'open source' except to the extent that it's used by many when they mean Free Software, and I accept their passion if not correctness in terminology. @skyfaller @alcinnz

@downey bingo. See also my thread on TechSoup: https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@lightweight/109865944427207828 most organisations are mostly focused not on what they *say* they're focused on. They're mostly focused on preserving their powerbase and sphere of influence, and will alter their mission to support that (explicitly if they're honest, but often not, thus becoming a faux-parody of what they claim to be.). @skyfaller @alcinnz

Wow, listening on RNZ now, and Luxon is so uninspiring. National's constant apologies for the ag sector shows how completely unreasonable (and the opposite of 'evidence-based') they are. Need to keep them out of Government.

If you want to move your email from a big hosting provider to your own self-hosted email service (or to any other 3rd-party-hosted email), make sure that a) you're using IMAP, and b) use one of the many #FOSS tools (there're lots of proprietary options, but from what I've seen, they're not a lot better and can cost heaps) to do an IMAP level transfer from your old service to your new one. And you need to c) do this *proactively*, because it ain't happening if access to the old service is gone.

Moreover, when that service eventually starts charging you, and/or goes out of business, or gets EOL'd by the supplier, you'll be screwed, because you'll need to get everyone who emails you to adopt your new email, which is a massive pain in the ass. Also, it'll break all your web accounts that use an email address. A huge disruption. If you had your own domain, you could switch its hosting provider transparently without affecting the email everyone uses to contact you. It's a no-brainer today.

To be clear: most people don't know why this is a problem. Here're a few reasons:
1. it aligns you with a brand that many people consider poisonous, and
2. it shows you don't have your tech shit together enough to have your own branded email, and
3. it means your email communications are totally dependent on a (usually free) email service that is *harvesting data from every email *I* send to that person* and is adding data to an ad profile for me that they sell to their actual customers. Yuck

I cry inside a little every time I see an otherwise credible person rocking an @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com (ugh), @outlook.com, or, in NZ, an @xtra.co.nz, or, perish the thought, @clear.net.nz (among other yucky corporate email providers). Shows they don't know 'how to digital' well enough to exist comfortably in a modern world. Unfortunately, that's 95% of the population. Which is just one reason (of many!) I think we're in the thick of a digital Dark Age. https://davelane.nz/darkage

If you're not familiar with VaultWarden, I wrote this up a year or two ago: https://tech.oeru.org/setting-your-own-bitwarden-password-manager-and-vaultwarden-sync-server If you're not using it already, I seriously encourage you to do so (or help someone in your community who can do it for you).