Your opinions on Lunduke? I think, his articles seem well researched and convincing.
>Firefox Money: Investigating the bizarre finances of Mozillahttps://lunduke.locals.com/post/4387539/firefox-money-investigating-the-bizarre-finances-of-mozilla
>6 Dirty Secrets of the Linux and Open Source Industryhttps://lunduke.substack.com/p/6-dirty-secrets-of-the-linux-and
>Microsoft's growing control of Linuxhttps://lunduke.substack.com/p/microsofts-growing-control-of-linuxHe's one of the very few who isn't blind to capital taking over free software and open source. But he's drawn to short-term sensationalism and has poor knowledge of the wider history of this process. "Open source" itself was invented for this purpose, as a capitalist-friendly alternative to "Free software".
Another problem with Lunduke is that he has no theory, so he's a bit like a headless chicken when trying to understand it. He probably seems like a a schizo conspiracy theorist to most devs, but most devs are vassals and allergic to politics.
Anyway, what Lunduke detects isn't really anything new and has been going on since the beginning:
>Once the corporate world began expressing interest in free software, many nonpolitical geeks sensed a lucrative business opportunity. As technology entrepreneur Michael Tiemann put it in 1999, while Stallman’s manifesto “read like a socialist polemic . . . I saw something different. I saw a business plan in disguise.” Stallman’s rights-talk, however, risked alienating the corporate types.>By early 1998 several business-minded members of the free software community were ready to split from Stallman, so they masterminded a coup, formed their own advocacy outlet—the Open Source Initiative—and brought in O’Reilly to help them rebrand.https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-meme-hustlerI'm certainly not a big computer nerd like most people here, but I'm also not a total normie. About 8 years ago, I started to use Linux Mint as my OS and my main motivation was to contribute in the "fight" against Big Tech. Again, I'm not a nerd, I'm just a concious user and my decisions are mostly led by my intuition. So my intuition told me, the penguin is good, open source is good, freedom is good etc. You can compare it to the Fairtrade logo in the supermarket. Nobody knows what it actually means, but it feels better to choose a fairtrade product over a regular product.
Now I accidently discovered these articles by Lunduke and they changed my opionion about the "fairtrade of computing", which is Linux. His articles are straight to the point and can be easily understood by non-nerds like myself. Reading his articles about Linux and Mozilla felt like reading some investigative techno-thriller. This quote really struck me:
>Think you're being rebellious — and staying clear of Big Tech — by using Linux? Think again.
I've never read someting like this before in such clear words without any computer mumbo jumbo. Why am I so obsessed with Lunduke in particular? Because I tried to find more info about this "conspiracy", but I was unable to find anything! It's like, Lunduke is the only person in the world, who talks about this issue, in a language which can be understood by brainlet users! So I'm not a total enemy of Linux now, but I'm certainly deeply disappointed, that Linux is not, what I believed it is. In the past 2 years I have developed a deep distrust toward computer technology in general and it is growing with every day.
>>24000I mean Linux certainly isn't instant communism in a can, it's certainly still a product of capitalism, but one that is a much better negotiation leverage for you as a user than if you're using something less modular. So kinda like unions.
There's a lot of largely unrevokable concessions ingrained in it in the name of being functionally efficient and generalized. Making it so modular, forkable, etc… means there wasn't really much porky could do during it's development to make it profitable to them specifically other than just use it as an easy to work with backend for more profitable projects… and that's what they do. ¯\(ツ)/¯
Idk maybe I'm missing the point of this.
>>24001I just think, I had all the time a false image of what Linux actually is (or has become in the last years). Let me put it this way: When looking at the apple or microsoft logos, I see greedy corpos. I see Bill Gates, I see Steve Jobs, I see capitalism. But In the past, when I looked at the Linux penguin logo, I saw Richard Stallman, beardy nerds who were making software not for profit, but for the people. I saw underground techno-revolutionaries, who were fighting against BigTech.
Now I realize, that this romantic view is an illusion. Lunduke's articles have shown me, that Linux is deeply corrupted. I don't know who to trust, I don't know what shady things Linux Mint is actually doing in the background. Maybe it's part of a botnet, I don't know! The good thing about Windows and mac is, you actually know that you are part of a botnet.
My computing needs are very minimal and in the last months my Windowsphone has completely replaced my Linux Mint desktop PC. When I think about it, there is actually no reason for me to ever getting a real computer again, because it just works. Since Linux is corrupted by BigTech anyway, it doesn't really matter what kind of OS I use. I see no reason anymore, why I should continue to use Linux in the future.
>>24004>I don't know what shady things Linux Mint is actually doing in the background.Except you actually know? You can run any process monitor and it will show you what's going on and if anything seems strange you can lookup what propose it may have.
And you can bet that lm wouldn't start some random connection to sent analytics* for ads or other similar stuff. Like, seriously compare the number of not explicitly authorised connections on your typical windows 10|11 installation to something like a debian or even lm one and it'll be night and day.
All this «follow the money my dude!» handwaving is dumb if not result of such action if presented. Even openbsd receives money from corps, it's openbsd compromised?
*: An exception to this maybe something like firefox since it may have been compiled to sent some data to mozilla by default, but this depends on the distribution and it isn't a linux specific thing.
>>24035The recent xz backdoor scandal was for me the final nail in the coffin, it showed me that you can't trust computers and you can't trust nerds. You say the same shit, all these Linux nerds are saying all the time: "It's totally secure bro. Just check the code, just check the process monitor!" So you found a backdoor, great! How many backdoors are there, which you haven' found yet? How many processes are there, which can't be detected by "any process monitor" currently? I thought Linux was supposed to be le based, secure, revolutionary alternative to the M$ botnet crap. It turns out, this isn't the case and the issue was never about which OS you choose: Computers are the problem, computers which are connected to the internet to be exactly. Remember those irrational anti-tech boomers, who had this vague fear of computers? Well guess what, they were right, although they couldn't explain why. I've been observing the development of computing technology very closely, we had the NSA leaks, corrupted Linux Mint images on the official LM website, Captology is rising, Lunduke's articles on BigTech control of Linux and Mozilla, articles by Stallmann why everything on the internet today sucks: DON'T TRUST COMPUTERS! It doesn't matter, which software you use. Stay away from internet connected devices as much as possible.
>>24057They say they got their numbers from
https://www.cvedetails.com/ so let's take a look:
> Ubuntu 20.04 LTShttps://www.cvedetails.com/version-search.php?page=1&vendor=&product=ubuntu&version=20.04There's only a single entry for LTS, and it does say 426. 20.04 was released in April 2020, it's four years old.
> Windows 11 (22h2)https://www.cvedetails.com/version-search.php?page=1&vendor=microsoft&product=windows+11+22h2&version=There are 79 entries, with various numbers between 0 and 572. I have no idea why. 22h2 was released in September 2022, it's not even two years old.
> most recentThe most recent Ubuntu is 23.10, with 2 vulnerabilities:
https://www.cvedetails.com/version/1726555/Canonical-Ubuntu-Linux-23.10.htmlBut the image does say "Recent Major Version", so let's look at the freshest LTS (long term support) version: Ubuntu 22.04, with 29 vulnerabilities:
https://www.cvedetails.com/version/703544/Canonical-Ubuntu-Linux-22.04.htmlWindows 11 also has a more recent version: 23h2, with 147 to 0 vulnerabilities. I have no idea if it is considered a "Major Version" or not. You can look at the rest but I think this is enough to see the point.
To be honest I am not sure how meaningful these numbers are anyway, but it should be pretty clear that this Lunduke person is not honest in their analysis.
>>24863There's a difference between a site being a nazi bar and being a full blown nazi site. Not much, but words mean things.
The margin for error is obviously smaller for a site that doesn't serve a real purpose aside from EEE tactics like substack tho.
https://www.theverge.com/24040685/substack-newsletters-nazi-content-moderation-policy >>24890>Any recs for tech/sec/linux podders or streamers on the left?Most of tech youtube is a waste of time. Find good tech content at lwn,
https://lobste.rs or
https://dragonflydigest.comIf you want to turn your brain off, you can watch any generic video essay about old computer hardware.
>>23967I used to like him but he turned into a massive rightoid>>24078
At least Luke Smith knows how to hide his power level
>>23967He's eh. He's a typical Open Source advocate: doesn't care about software freedom all that much and dislikes Stallman. At least that's my impression of him.
DistroTube may be the Joe Rogan of alt-tech but at least he has a strong stance on software freedom unlike some people. Even Brodie Robertson is more supportive of software freedom than Lunduke is, think about it.
>>24036This is not news and it's not radical. There's a reason one of the most parroted quotes in infosec is "the only truly secure system is one that is powered off and cast in a block of concrete". Which is also to say, rely on computer security as little as possible.
You don't need a right-wing crackpot to tell you that. If hearing this from the mouth of a nutjob makes you immediately think he's the only sane one in a world of crazies it must be very easy to recruit you into a cult.
Also, obviously, the fact that computers are inherently insecure doesn't mean you should never use them ever.
>>25647>Also, obviously, the fact that computers are inherently insecure doesn't mean you should never use them ever.I agree. But the last years had thought me, that I must change my relation to computertechnology in general. In short, I no longer treat computers (and other computertech like smartphones) as the center of my life. I use no online services (except online banking & email) and if you would now smash all my devices, I wouldn't care. Using computertechnology is Ok, but one shouldn't be dependent on it. Cardinal sins to create computer dependencies are for example Datahoarding and cultivating hobbies which rely on computers. One hobby of mine was making music with a DAW. But now I realize, that this was a mistake. I created a dependency on a fast changing corpo technology, which I can't control. I should had started to play electric guitar instead. Since it's invention, guitars never changed and they wont change in the next 50 years either. Books will also not change. But everything what relies on computers, is not in your hand.
>>25655>I created a dependency on a fast changing corpo technology, which I can't control.There are simple enough, open-source DAWs like ardour, ams or impuletracker for example. I bet anyone with a bit of C knowledge and the library documentation could reasonably maintain them or keep around a working system release and move it to a vm if x86_64 ever dies.
>Cardinal sins to create computer dependencies are for example DatahoardingIsn't it worthwhile to preserve things. Private datahoarding might be a sin and we should all move towards a single distributed filesharing protocol witin a unified namespace, using our local storage as a glorified cache, but that hasn't worked out for me as of now.
>>25343 (me)
After watching his more recent videos I'd say he's good but I cannot forget his past attitude towards the FSF so I still like DT and Mental Outlaw more. But maybe he's less hostile to Stallman and the FSF now.
Also, he doesn't say "GNU/Linux" unlike DT, this is anathema. Also, I don't agree with conservatism, that's a moralistic ideology, but I don't really care as long as he's not a groyper who thinks gay marriage is enabling pedophilia.
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