Freesoftwareenjoyer @ Freesoftwareenjoyer @lemmy.world

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2 yr. ago

But you can't legally modify it and distribute your modified version. You can't fix a vulnerability and share the patched version with others. Only the developer can, so you are at their mercy. If they add spyware into the program, users can't do anything about it.

Most of the examples listed there are issues that don't affect real applications. It's just garbage code, so the output ends up being garbage too. Programmers don't write code like that, unless they are doing it as a joke. A few of those examples can be real issues sometimes, but they are not that big of a deal to an experienced JavaScript programmer.

It's an imperfect language like any other.

You can use computers without being tracked.

The choice might not always be obvious. What if the project improves the society or saves human lives? In such case we might decide it's better to support the project, but make it clear that we don't support his other activities.

I don't disagree with you, but at the same time I use Lemmy. I disagree with its developers political views, but I believe they are doing something good for society. So maybe sometimes it's good to make an exception.

There is also Tor Browser.

True, but Libre software can be commercial. So you should instead say that the proprietary or non-libre software has no transparency.

Free software is not automatically private or secure, but it can be. Proprietary software can't.

That's cool! So there aren't any issues with phone calls anymore? I think people complained about audio quality, but I guess my PinePhone also has some issues like that.

But if you do, I would recommend to use megi’s u-boot fork to improve your battery life.

Doesn't everything use Tow-Boot now?

Freedom requires sacrifices. I research if a game will run before buying it. I don't but the ones that won't, because freedom is more important to me.

This is why I’ll still use Win 11 as my daily.

I think your goal should be to do the opposite. Run GNU/Linux as your daily and switch to Windows only when you have to. Eventually you will become better at solving issues and will be able to run more games without using Windows. Maybe in a few years you will even decide that you no longer care about those remaining games that don't run and ditch Windows entirely.

That won’t convince a lot of people

That's fine. Most people don't care about freedom, security and privacy, so they aren't willing to spend the extra effort to get those things. But it also means that publishers don't have a good reason to stop abusing their users with DRM and spyware, since people will buy those games anyway. They don't have to publish for GNU/Linux, because people are fine with running Windows and not being in control of their computers.

For GTA VC for example people list some workarounds: https://www.protondb.com/app/12110.

You could also try using WINE: https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=18567

Edit: Usually the only hardware that matters is the GPU. The software is also important: GPU drivers (mostly for Nvidia users), version of Proton/WINE, Wayland vs Xorg, dxvk and extra libraries that a game might need.

Why do you use Proton instead on WINE? I've never tried, so I'm curious if I should look into it.

We have GNU/Linux on smartphones now. There is PinePhone and Librem 5. Some Android phones can run GNU/Linux too.

We have PinePhone and Librem 5 now.

I disagree. Most phones can only run proprietary operating systems and the modem runs its own proprietary operating system, which very likely has access to system memory. Your phone carrier tracks you everywhere you go and can listen to your phone calls.

How is PinePhone Pro now? It's been over a year since its release and reading on reddit a few months ago it still seemed behind the original PinePhone. I would like to upgrade to the Pro version, but I'm worried it will be another year for it to be stable.

So he is lifting weights all day instead of training martial arts?

Software is usually installed from repositories and not random websites, so there is less room for user error in general. Even if you download an executable file, you will most likely have to give it permissions to run first. So I think it's more immune to viruses not because of its users, but because of the way it's designed.

Perhaps you are right, but it's way more difficult, takes a lot of time and requires a different set of skills. If there is spyware in it, it would be illegal to remove it and distribute a patch for other users. So even if you find something, there is not much you can do about it.

It's not very practical to add spyware into Libre Software though, because it wouldn't be hard to find and it would be very easy for users to remove it.

It's certainly better to use WINE to run a few proprietary programs than to run a whole proprietary operating system like Windows :)