this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
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libre

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Welcome to libre

A comm dedicated to the fight for free software with an anti-capitalist perspective.

The struggle for libre computing cannot be disentangled from other forms of socialist reform. One must be willing to reject proprietary software as fiercely as they would reject capitalism. Luckily, we are not alone.

libretion

Resources

  1. Free Software, Free Society provides an excellent primer in the origins and theory around free software and the GNU Project, the pioneers of the Free Software Movement.
  2. Switch to GNU/Linux! If you're still using Windows in $CURRENT_YEAR, take Linux Mint for a spin. If you're ready to take the plunge, flock to Fedora! If you're a computer hobbyist and love DIY, use Arch, NixOS or the many, many other offerings out there.

Rules

  1. Be on topic: Posts should be about free software and other hacktivst struggles. Topics about general tech news should be in the technology comm or programming comm. That doesn't mean all posts have to be serious though, memes are welcome!
  2. Avoid using misleading terms/speading misinformation: Here's a great article about what those words are. In short, try to avoid parroting common Techbro lingo and topics.
  3. Avoid being confrontational: People are in different stages of liberating their computing, focus on informing rather than accusing. Debatebro nonsense is not tolerated.
  4. All site-wide rules still apply

Artwork

founded 4 years ago
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End of Windows 10 (endof10.org)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Reasons to switch:

  1. It's waaaaay cheaper
    • A new laptop costs a lot of money. Repair cafes will often help you for free. Software updates are also free, forever. You can of course show your support for both with donations!
  2. No ads, no spying
    • Windows comes with lots of ads and spyware nowadays, slowing down your computer and increasing your energy bill.
  3. Good for the planet
    • Production of a computer accounts for 75+% of carbon emissions over its lifecycle. Keeping a functioning device longer is a hugely effective way to reduce emissions.
  4. Community support
    • If you have any issues with your computer, the local repair cafe and independent computer shop are there for you. You can find community support in online forums, too.
  5. User control
    • You are in control of the software, not companies. Use your computer how you want, for as long as you want.

Hexbear-related reasons to switch:

  1. Still can use hexbear
    • Hexbear requires a web browser (firefox) to use.
  2. Don't have to pay for it.
    • You'll receive updates and features for your operating system free of any personal charge to you till the end of time. You can donate directly to volunteers and workers to make your computer better (better yet non computer related things)
  3. using Windows for Windows's sake or Apple for Apple's sake is liberalism and supports USA/piSSrael
    • TBH they copied from us (KDE, GNOME) anyway. Their innovation is being a monopoly and advertising to you.
  4. Makes you smarter (it's like reading theory but with computers)
    • Using Linux makes you big brain because you'll learn you can do a lot of things for free that you'd have to waste your soul on. doggirl-smart
top 9 comments
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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

if you use a computer you owe it to yourself to learn how & start using Linux. stop using games as a crutch, that's G*mer behavior. I don't care if your favorite game won't work with Proton. pick a new one that does there are literally so many and you'll end up liking it more because your computer will actually respect you. smoker-on-the-balcony

i mean FFS the steam deck runs on modified Arch. doom (the new shit), KSP (is native), animal well, rdr2, even halo all run great. I run pathologic 3 off an old thinkpad with a thunderbolt eGPU. a better world is possible.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

somebody motivate me to clean the back room so i can set up my PC tinkering station so i can install the extra hard drives and finally get PopOS loaded with partitioning

yeah i have to do all that in that order

also i want to spell it like Pop! OS

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

no more half measures walter

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I know windows sucks... BUT I want all my games to work and not have to troubleshoot stuff. (Could I troubleshoot stuff "probably"?)

But I wanna be lazy not smart. Are there distros that do that yet (be gentle im drunk atm)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

there has not been a more fun time to use linux than today (and every day after today).

The caveat are games that require kernel level rootkits for their "anticheat" functionality. These are usually massive multiplayer games that have some emphasis on microtransactions and in-game gambling (think your league of legends and apex legends/fortnite).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Decades spent on the puter and I'm still a newb, anyway can I download Mint and then run windows in a virtual machine to play some games? I'm addicted to windows abandonware and I'm pretty sure I'd need to run it in a virtual machine if I was on linux. How about for emulators like duckstation and pcsx2?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you're fine fiddling and tinkering, Lutris for Linux has been able to run a few things from Windows that I wanted to play... so far Transformers: Devastation, Planescape Torment, and Space Rangers have all run like a champ. Its a bit odd to get a game installed. Its like WINE but with less terminal style commands.

Dosbox works like a champ and lots of abandonware dos games have been repackaged in their own dosbox wrapper.

Retroarch is .... a thing that can sometimes work for console games. Its... a chore to use.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ooof, my general experience with Linux users is that if they say "works flawlessly" they mean 2 weeks of fraught driver installs and using commands taken from the necromomicon.

So I hesitate to think what "a chore" would be

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

What are you talking about? I haven't had to fuck with drivers on Linux in like a decade, and even then it was because I had one of those weird gaming laptops that had two GPU's. "Works flawlessly" to me means just that: install it from your distro's package manager and it's ready to go, with perhaps a smidge of configuration if necessary. Retroarch is "a chore" in the sense that it took me like an afternoon of tinkering to get working, and most of that was because I simply didn't understand the core concept of how to get controllers working.

"Two weeks of fraught driver installs" my ass. And "commands taken from the necronomicon", really? Are you that afraid of the command line? I'd say you owe it to yourself to give Linux a shot. You've got the wrong idea about it, and about those of us who use it.