It’s kind of ironic to me that Linux is all for free and open source, but still uses a proprietary platform, and a horrible one at that. Before the fediverse, I’d understand, but now, there is no excuse whatsoever.
I understand that we can’t just get up and leave everything proprietary behind all at once, since we have iPhones and Android phones. We all use proprietary software of some form, but I am of the mindset of using the least amount of proprietary possible.
I will ALWAYS look for FOSS first. I also want to make it as hard as possible for any corporation to track me. They’ll probably still be able to track me, but I’m not going without a fight.
I could say the same about the Linux kernel using GitHub, but I understand how massive of an undertaking it would be to move the whole kernel to another platform. I’m sure there are other factors, too. Anyway, I just wanted to start a discussion and hear people’s thoughts.
Thank you
Reddit has a big community. It’s about networking effect. That’s why so hard to leave big platforms, because you can migrate to FOSS alternatives, but maybe most of things/people you follow don’t have accounts there.
The kernel on GitHub is just a mirror - the primary source is on kernel.org
Torvalds wrote git for the Linux kernel, and then GitHub popped up because most other projects couldn’t handle the decentralization. Interestingly to OP’s frustration, they were using a proprietary VCS before that, and people were just as frustrated about that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git#History
Yeah… would have taken OP 10 seconds to check that. Dumb.
- Not everyone that uses Linux is against proprietary software or only uses FOSS.
- There are people that just heard of Linux, are just trying it out, or have an issue, and already use Reddit, or is what the search engine points them to go for help, or to ask questions.
- Reddit has a lot more reach for the common people than any other platform at the moment, there are still people that prefer to ask on Reddit, than go to a specific forum or another platform to ask (If I remember right, it still happens with some apps like Jellyfin that moved out of Reddit, but people still ask there)
These are just a few of the reasons that come to my mind.
Also institutional inertia is difficult to overcome in general.
This is so weird to me. Maybe it’s about who you are, or who you run with, but when I saw that Discord was about to go that way, I messaged my Pathfinder group and every single person there immediately hit me back with, “so where to next?”
That’s what, five people?
It’s a lot different when it’s thousands and thousands
That’s why I said it might have something to do with who you’re around.
As an example I’m on Linux for a decade now but I also use proprietary services. I use Jellyfin and Netflix, Vim and Jetbrains IDEs, Chess.com instead of Lichess, WhatsApp instead of Matrix.
Sometimes the value proposition does it for me, sometimes it’s the network effect. I’ve ditched reddit because I like Lemmy more but I can see how someone wants to stay in touch with their niche communities that don’t really exist on Lemmy. Probably some people use both.
How comes that Vim is proprietary? Jetbrain offers community versions which are afaik open source too, so you can look at the source code, you do not need to pay or agree to an EULA.
It’s not, Vim is GNU. I listed some of them as “I use open source and proprietary” things. Jellyfin is open source also.
Linux isnt only for Foss enjoyers. Plus its good to have the linux community on reddit to help people bring attention to linux. If they move it here it will be even harder to join the community.
Think of /r/linux as a gateway to the world of Foss
You are not wrong. But there are things you can do to make a point. Make Reddit as a 2nd class citizen and drive people to lemmy, mastodon and the others. Like add posts with no comments, just relay bot, … Make it clear.
Same with GitHub, it’s mirror to my Gitea instance. You can see stuff but you have to move somewhere else to contribute and report issues. Not a terrible thing to use these proprietary services and yet make them 2nd class citizens.
There’s two reasons why r/linux is popular on Reddit:
- Reddit is popular
- r/linux is popular
Some of us did leave, that’s why you see us here
You’re talking as if “The linux community” was one single bunch of people.
Reddit isn’t Linux HQ and nor is Lemmy, nor is Facebook. #linux still active on IRC too, but not there either.
100%. I’m relatively new to Linux and to the western world as a whole. 😅
Even if they did… Reddit would just find new mods and reopen it. They wouldn’t let it remain abandoned.
This kind of answers my question. lol. I didn’t think about it that way. I thought they can just bring it all here and that one gets
closerclosed or something. I forgot how reddit works.It’s how they kept everything from dying when they killed third party apps. They openly banned and replaced mods that were keeping their subreddits locked. It was a shitshow, but unfortunately reddit still exists.
It would definitely be nicer to see the Linux community grow here.
But hey. I’m on Linux and I’m here with y’all. :)
Tell me what distro you are using and I tell you if you have to go back to reddit or not.
Well they’re clearly not using Arch. Btw.
How should we know? Ask them, not us.
But Lemmy users are obviously smarter, so it’s better to ask them.
Honestly man, of all the communities we have here on lemmy, linux community getting bigger is not what we need. We need all the rest, stuff like tf2, csgo, gaming specific stuff, all the other niche communities.
Granted, we’re gonna end up with /r/sinkpissers. Lol
All seriousness, there’s a lot of neat communities I wish would find their way here. Heck, I wish there was a way to just export the history over so old archived data wasn’t lost forever.
we’re gonna end up with /r/sinkpissers. Lol
In all seriousness, you really don’t want a mass exodus from Reddit to Lemmy instances. It’s better that it’s slowly so growth is managed but even more important, user quality is maintained!
When the Digg exodus happened, Reddit literally overnight went from a considered discussion board to full of ascii art, 1 line shit witty or pun comments, lyric threads and the signal to noise ratio went to shit.
On top of that there were constant stability issues that were compounded by all the thickos constantly hammering F5.
100% with you on that one.
I really enjoy the discussions here, even if it’s a little slower paced sometimes. (And I find that to be a feature!)
I’ve come to feel that technology is for anyone , but not necessarily for everyone , at least, not all at once.
It seems like a series of Eternal Septembers are usually coaxed along by corporate interests to spur mass-adoption for
fun andprofit, and the existing communities that get flooded tend to suffer for it, because there’s no time to support or acclimate the newbies to the community, and they bring their existing assumptions with them.
Linux is ubiquitous, it’s everywhere, even on Reddit, even under your bed
If you have a Smart BedTM, Linux might even be in your bed.
Also it was on the Mars with the Ingenuity.
The mods there were crap back in the day. Keep them on reddit.
Bet the Facebook Linux community is bigger than ours.
It is actually.
I hear the Linux community on Microsoft GitHub is pretty big too these days.
Because this here is for support. That there is for evangelism.
