Post by @nina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt

RE: https://tech.lgbt/@nina_kali_nina/117441043503225633

The new policies for the Linux kernel make it more or less impossible to support a slop-free fork of Linux, so if you're worried about the reliability of your system level software, or have ethical concerns about LLM usage on your computer, the time to act is, well, now.

If you have time this weekend, I recommend you to try one of the slop-free systems: NetBSD, 9front, HyperbolaBSD, Haiku, or OpenBSD. If you're adventurous, you could try new AlpineBSD, or research smaller systems, like FreeDOS. If you don't feel adventurous, you might want to check out anti-AI Linux distributions, like Elementary or Gentoo.

There's no "one solution that fits all". But there's a solution that I chose for myself, and that's NetBSD: it gives me the most freedom, it supports most of my hardware, and can run a great deal of software I need. It's not easy to run, but it's a great learning opportunity. There's quite a few folks around using BSD and capable of giving hints and advice, so if you feel stuck, toot about #netbsd.

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Nina Kalinina

@nina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt 2 days ago

#netbsd install party this weekend, anyone? 🎉

#netbsd

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David Fleetwood - RG Admin

@reflex@retrogaming.social 17 hr. ago

@nina_kali_nina @redox has a strong no AI policy as well, I am wondering if there is a list of what needs to be done to make it generally usable as a desktop OS.

David Fleetwood - RG Admin

@reflex@retrogaming.social 17 hr. ago

@nina_kali_nina @redox To add to the list, what is needed to make @servo usable as well. I believe it also is not using AI, and is an engine that gets us away from Google and the ever incompetent Mozilla.

alcinnz

@alcinnz@floss.social 18 hr. ago

@nina_kali_nina I hear that NetBSD's driver infrastructure is promising in that it'd make it easier to port these drivers to other kernels. Thus removing barriers to kernel competition!

Not that most people would care about any other differences...

As for me: I think I'll stick with elementary OS, & let them make such calls for me. They are at the very least vocally anti-"AI"!

Nina Kalinina

@nina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt 19 hr. ago

If you don't know where to start, a great starting point would be:

Get yourself a virtual machine - that can be Qemu or maybe VirtualBox, these are free. There are other options available, depending on the OS you use.
Go to NetBSD.org and download the installation image (it can be a USB image or a CD image)
Create a virtual machine, add a virtual hard disk, and the NetBSD image you downloaded to it, and start
Have the NetBSD website with the manual open. It explains lots and lots of things. You'll learn a lot about your computer by reading it, and it can be useful even for other OSes (if you decide that NetBSD is too hard)
Install NetBSD, and then configure a graphical interface for it, and maybe some software, like free office suite (LibreOffice or maybe Abiword+Gnumeric), or incredible graphic editors (Krita and Inkscape). They might not necessarily be what you're used to, but they're worth trying, and you might like them enough to use them on your normal OS.

Good luck!

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Nina Kalinina

@nina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt 14 hr. ago

P.S. alternative operating systems aren't easy. My feeling is that NetBSD and OpenBSD are roughly as easy to get into as Linux used to be 20 years ago. If your hardware is supported, you're in luck, but for computers newer than 5-7 years old, especially laptops, some crucial bits might be missing. The documentation is much better today than it was 20 years ago, though, and the range of ports and software available is pretty good, sure.

But it still is difficult to use. For me it's learning a new thing under stress while grieving about the computing future I wish I've had.

happyborg

@happyborg@fosstodon.org 1 hr. ago

@nina_kali_nina Could still be a good choice for ethical #HomeLab'ers, though I'm not sure how many of us there are. 🙏

P.S. I balked at writing 'ethical' there because what I should be saying is more like, "with half a brain and any awareness whatsoever of what's going on with #GenAI" and I'm remembering Linus Torvalds' ridiculous attempt to justify his use because it's a tool just like a compiler or IDE... with no awareness of the differences either in the tech or the impact of that tech.

happyborg

@happyborg@fosstodon.org 1 hr. ago

@nina_kali_nina I wouldn't have considered that #Linux is heading for a fall because of a few decent people trying to move to a non genocide supporting OS, but I can see it happening now.

Not only are there more of us than I probably realised, but Linus' ignorant anti community dinosaur leadership is going to hamper it more and more, not just on the #LLM issues. I had no idea he was such a dick/idiot.

mcc

@mcc@mastodon.social 19 hr. ago

@nina_kali_nina Imagine we forked from last summer or whenever right before the first pro-slop policy was (ie the documentation policies that predated the code policies).

Aside from the problem of getting a team together, what do you think would be the limitations on developing from that point?

(To be clear this is not my preferred solution. I'm just trying to understand what the options are.)

Nina Kalinina

@nina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt 18 hr. ago

@mcc well, the first problem is that it'd have to be a hard fork; it won't be possible to import fixes from upstream because they are all going to be tainted, due to the new policies. The second problem is that Linux doesn't have stable ABI, and its API is also fairly volatile, which means in the near future the binaries for Linux and the binaries for neverslop-Linux will not be compatible (which means things like flatpak, appimage and docker will be very confusing or difficult to run). And then it'd be difficult to get any support from Intel, AMD and Nvidia for their hardware, because they and the main vendors (Ubuntu and Redhat) and the main users (Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta) will not care about the neverslop-Linux. And then vulnerabilities found and fixed in upstream will have to be fixed in neverslop-Linux if they're old enough, but Linux now uses a horrendous practice of calling every bug a CVE, with 1000 CVEs a month, making it impossible to triage and fix.

Leeloo

@leeloo@c.im 15 hr. ago

@nina_kali_nina @mcc
Not the "stable ABI" thing again.

I remember when Slashdot Linux posts alternated between "Linux doesn't have a stable ABI" and "Linus yells at someone for making a tiny change to a 30 year old ABI that is still used by one application from 1999".

Which is it?

Nina Kalinina

@nina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt 15 hr. ago

@leeloo @mcc it can be both 😊

Also, I realised there's much better argument here: https://drewdevault.com/blog/AI-in-Linux/

AI in Linux