June, 10, 2023 archives

Distribution Service

Linux has been written entirely by volunteers who have been working on their own time, and I don't think that should change. I also don't think it's fair that someone take what has been written for free by people and try and sell it to turn a buck (i.e. make a living doing so). How fair is that to those of us who contribute our time freely?

i am not sure when it shifted, if it was gradual or sudden, but i do not agree with what i wrote back then (1992!) about the fairness of someone building a business on what someone else has given freely. that has always been a central tension in what became known as the open source community, and you even see it coming up in current discussions about the training data used by generative “AI” systems.

(also, another quote: “I cannot see Linux being a full-time thing for anyone at this point, really.” oops!)

our missing hearts by celeste ng is not a dystopian novel. it is set in a plausible near-future version of the united states where anti-immigrant and anti-asian policies are accelerated. it is very informed by the policies pursued under the trump administration and the quiet complicity of many or most americans (especially us white ones) in the rise of a new fascism.

structurally, i really liked how the story circles back on itself to re-tell different aspects of the story from different points of view.

it is pretty devastating, and i highly recommend it.

the deluge by stephen markley reminded me of the ministry for the future by kim stanley robinson but it is almost exclusively focused on the united states grappling with the climate crisis over the next decade instead of the whole world. that means there is a lot more domestic politics, and while the characters are pretty broadly drawn it is altogether plausible in a pretty unsettling way.

one of the threads in the ministry for the future that stays pretty much in the background is the actions of eco-terrorists, but this is developed much more extensively in the deluge. as a result, it ties into the other story lines in a more organic way.

the domestic politics also echo our missing hearts in some aspects. definitely another book from the post-trump era. (he hopefully calls it, rather than mid-trump.)

it is hard to look back at how the pandemic has played out and see any hope for the climate crisis being addressed in any meaningful way. it has been less than a week since much of the east coast was blanketed in smoke from canadian wildfires, and it already feels like everyone has moved on. but the fires are still burning.

another book i would recommend, if you are up to reading quasi-apocalyptic plausible fiction.