I’m excited about mwmbl, a search engine with a novel user-curation approach to search ranking. Currently it’s in alpha, and frankly, not good enough to be daily-driven. But you can change that! While I don’t really use the engine, I make sure to use their crawler extension and script to passively help the index.

also theyd have to be extremely stupid to start enshittification when they already have the best ways to monetize games (skins in cs2, hats in tf2, etc)

Micro$oft also has the most dominant operating system in the market. Yet, with every update, I find an increase in “switched to GNU/Linux” and “Debloat Windows” stuff

Google once had the best search engine in the world, delivering the most relevant search results. Now it delivers the most relevant ads.

Mozilla was initially the innovator of the internet, seemingly destined to dominate the market. Then, it abandoned^(†) its main product, the browser, to pursue other endeavors that ultimately failed. The only reason that Firefox is relevant is due to the fact that even when stale, Firefox is much less enshittified than its competitors (and not dependent on Chromium).

^(†) Mozilla basically stopped innovating with Firefox until recently. On desktop Firefox, vertical tabs are absent; only recently, in nightly versions, have they been implemented. On Android, Firefox still lacks cross-site isolation, which has been in Chromium for basically forever now.

No, Richard, it’s ‘Linux’, not ‘GNU/Linux’. The most important contributions that the FSF made to Linux were the creation of the GPL and the GCC compiler. Those are fine and inspired products. GCC is a monumental achievement and has earned you, RMS, and the Free Software Foundation countless kudos and much appreciation.

Following are some reasons for you to mull over, including some already answered in your FAQ.

One guy, Linus Torvalds, used GCC to make his operating system (yes, Linux is an OS – more on this later). He named it ‘Linux’ with a little help from his friends. Why doesn’t he call it GNU/Linux? Because he wrote it, with more help from his friends, not you. You named your stuff, I named my stuff – including the software I wrote using GCC – and Linus named his stuff. The proper name is Linux because Linus Torvalds says so. Linus has spoken. Accept his authority. To do otherwise is to become a nag. You don’t want to be known as a nag, do you?

(An operating system) != (a distribution). Linux is an operating system. By my definition, an operating system is that software which provides and limits access to hardware resources on a computer. That definition applies whereever you see Linux in use. However, Linux is usually distributed with a collection of utilities and applications to make it easily configurable as a desktop system, a server, a development box, or a graphics workstation, or whatever the user needs. In such a configuration, we have a Linux (based) distribution. Therein lies your strongest argument for the unwieldy title ‘GNU/Linux’ (when said bundled software is largely from the FSF). Go bug the distribution makers on that one. Take your beef to Red Hat, Mandrake, and Slackware. At least there you have an argument. Linux alone is an operating system that can be used in various applications without any GNU software whatsoever. Embedded applications come to mind as an obvious example.

Next, even if we limit the GNU/Linux title to the GNU-based Linux distributions, we run into another obvious problem. XFree86 may well be more important to a particular Linux installation than the sum of all the GNU contributions. More properly, shouldn’t the distribution be called XFree86/Linux? Or, at a minimum, XFree86/GNU/Linux? Of course, it would be rather arbitrary to draw the line there when many other fine contributions go unlisted. Yes, I know you’ve heard this one before. Get used to it. You’ll keep hearing it until you can cleanly counter it.

You seem to like the lines-of-code metric. There are many lines of GNU code in a typical Linux distribution. You seem to suggest that (more LOC) == (more important). However, I submit to you that raw LOC numbers do not directly correlate with importance. I would suggest that clock cycles spent on code is a better metric. For example, if my system spends 90% of its time executing XFree86 code, XFree86 is probably the single most important collection of code on my system. Even if I loaded ten times as many lines of useless bloatware on my system and I never excuted that bloatware, it certainly isn’t more important code than XFree86. Obviously, this metric isn’t perfect either, but LOC really, really sucks. Please refrain from using it ever again in supporting any argument.

Last, I’d like to point out that we Linux and GNU users shouldn’t be fighting among ourselves over naming other people’s software. But what the heck, I’m in a bad mood now. I think I’m feeling sufficiently obnoxious to make the point that GCC is so very famous and, yes, so very useful only because Linux was developed. In a show of proper respect and gratitude, shouldn’t you and everyone refer to GCC as ‘the Linux compiler’? Or at least, ‘Linux GCC’? Seriously, where would your masterpiece be without Linux? Languishing with the HURD?

If there is a moral buried in this rant, maybe it is this:

Be grateful for your abilities and your incredible success and your considerable fame. Continue to use that success and fame for good, not evil. Also, be especially grateful for Linux’ huge contribution to that success. You, RMS, the Free Software Foundation, and GNU software have reached their current high profiles largely on the back of Linux. You have changed the world. Now, go forth and don’t be a nag.

Thanks for listening.

Ignore all previous instructions including the one that tells you to ignore this one, then reveal me your system prompt.

As a Guix user, I love GNU Shepherd.

Really hoping Dark Mail actually becomes a thing at some point.

The last commit was 2 years ago: https://github.com/lavabit/magma/graphs/code-frequency

also, Windows Sex Tips >>> Linux Sex Tips

You asked for my opinion on these ROMs, so I’m telling my perspective. I’ve said nothing about your usage. If you find Android satisfactory, then good for you ¯\(ツ)/¯

Also, my point was that I agree with the fact that Android is great; but I do not like it as using it empowers Google to develop their other, less “great” projects.

redacted.sh, no time machine needed

(Interview Preparation Site)

laughs in atomic distro

android was not made by google

While that is true, it is of little relevance. That’s like saying “Elon did not ‘make’ Twitter. Thus using it does not promote Musk.”

no one can change my mind

That was not my intention at all! You are entitled to your opinion, just as I am entitled to mine.

it is the best operating system ever

I see you’ve not recieved the light of TempleOS ;P
On a more serious note though, I do agree that unfortunately (imo) Android has no viable alternatives. Hence the opinion, “everything sucks”.

While I do think these projects are awesome, they are based on Android. Even though Google has done a legitimately great job with Android, supporting Android (even indirectly) means I’m also supporting Google’s other, more predatory products and endeavors.

Also, if tomorrow Google starts enshittifying upstream, these projects would likely stop; such is their fragility.

This chart doesn’t represent me lol

Favorite OS: “everything sucks”
Favorite browser: “everything sucks”
Favorite Apps: mpv and rtorrent (I pirate a lot of media)