microsoft repos in linux!

[zborgerd]

"BY THE WAY" ...did u just signed up here to shill for microsot  ?    

Josmo, I signed up here because I have a PinePhone. FYI: Raspberry Pi has nothing to do with PinePhone.

[josmo]

"BY THE WAY" ...did u just signed up here to shill for microsot  ?    

Josmo, I signed up here because I have a PinePhone. FYI: Raspberry Pi has nothing to do with PinePhone.

   "Good One!"

[TRS-80]

Apologies for all the extra newlines, I tried several times to edit them out, but the forum software apparently keeps putting them back in for some reason.

I agree that Microsoft isn't necessarily trustworthy, but some of the paranoia from the FOSS community is borderline lunacy. It's very hard if not impossible to have a completely open platform, for now. We're getting there though. But some people are not looking at the obvious black boxes in their computers. They've got an Intel Management Engine backdoor running at the lowest level, or they are running nVidia drivers on their Linux desktops or something like Broadcom Videocore drivers on their RPis. Yet their concern is Microsoft being nefarious without looking at the greater issues with their computing platforms.

Just because those other things you mentioned are also bad, does not mean that Microsoft is not bad. 


"We're getting there" no thanks to them (and in fact, by overcoming their actively hostile opposition), which is why they deserve to be shunned.  All of those devices / companies should not only be avoided (vote with your feet / money), but actively challenged (as I am doing here) to raise awareness of the relevant issues, every time they are brought up, especially within F/LOSS communities.


By the way, I manage to do almost all of my computing completely IME/blob free.  I seek out and purchase hardware that is supported by Libreboot (classic T60 ThinkPads, KGPE-D16, etc.) LibreWrt (WNDR3800), and (non RPi) Single Board Computers (including Pine64 devices!) running Armbian.  Do some of the latter require a couple blobs here and there?  Yes, but slowly and steadily more and more things are getting mainlined, and there are actually a number of boards which can be booted completely blob free by now.  My point being, that alternatives (though few) do exist, and it is these alternatives that deserve our mindshare in the form of discussion and free publicity (and not M$, RPi, etc.).  And also that the blob situation on those other boards is just a regular hardware blob situation per chip / hardware, and not the entire platform as on RPi, which is entirely different matter and I do not see changing.

I work in an environment where I have to balance the best features of free or closed software. I still don't trust Google enough to stick in the Android ecosystem, or else I wouldn't be here. But the RPi thing; It never was completely "open source" and probably never will be. But it's geared towards a lot of hobbyists that use Windows more often than strict Linux users, and is also positioning itself and platform as an easy and cheap alternative to Windows computers. See the all-in-one keyboard kits as an example.

This is an important point.  Even rms himself / the FSF official stance is that any steps you can take towards freedom are steps in the right direction.  They are actually not the absolutists that they are portrayed as some times[0].  We may be forced to use proprietary software/hardware at work or elsewhere.  But wherever possible, we should not only try to choose the most free alternative, but also expend the time and energy to educate as many people as possible to the relevant issues, and importantly, (more) free alternatives.



[0] Some of subscribers to Free Software philosophy unfortunately forget this point, which results in experience(s) you seem to have had which lead you to using terms like "paranoia", "lunacy" (I have also heard terms like "zealot" etc).  Although I disagree with "paranoia" in particular; if someone tries to kill you for decades, it's not "paranoia" to recognize that fact.

[WarpLover]

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Oh no:/ I think most people who are into Linux and Open Source ideas want to avoid Google and M$.

add all social media to that unwanted list