If I have a choice between buying a table and chairs from IKEA, or buying a table and chairs from my neighbour who loves making them bespoke in his woodshop, I’ll take the second option every time. As a society we need more of this…supporting our own labour efforts over mass corporate manufacturing.

The full saying is “Free as in Speech, not Free as in Beer”

Basically the “Free” in free means that it’s free to do with as you please, modify, etc… But not free as in “here’s a free product…like getting a free beer”

I’m not really talking about development as simply programming. There are a lot of aspects that go into development, yes…programming is a big aspect.

But there’s also bug reporting (every user should know how to report bugs because it’s contributes to making the program better).

Heck, you can even download the documentation and give it a proof-read if you’re good with grammar and spot some errors if you don’t want to commit to helping to write it.

I know a lot of people who spend a lot of time in the various subs for the software, taking care to answer questions from other users who need help doing this or that. That again, is contributing.

Then there’s simply what we’re doing right now. Bringing attention to the projects online getting them more visibility.

Development of a successful FOSS app isn’t just about programming. And even small contributions count. If you can donate some coin, great! If you can’t, or don’t want to, there are a thousand other things that you can do to contribute to that apps community.

I emphasized the word community because that is exactly what it is. The ethos of Open Source; what makes it different than Propietary software, is that the users are an inherent part of the development process in ways both big and small. In propietary software, there is a distinct line between the developers and the users. Developers have multiple stakeholders of which the user base is certainly one, but also include advertisers, software makers, hardware makers, etc…

FOSS software, in contrast, is much more a communitee effort with the involvement of the community in the way of bug reports, literature, education and even simply championing the project because they don’t have millions of dollars in advertising budgets.

Sorry, I get a little passionate, so this is longer than I intended it to be.

But tl;dr, contributing isn’t just about money or just about programming. There’s a thousand ways big and small, and my issue isn’t with people not “paying” necessarily. But people who use it for free and don’t bother filing bug reports, don’t join the community online to help answer user questions, etc…

A good FOSS citizen should be an active part of the community. Or donate money to the project if they’d rather not.

This software is extensively free (as in beer)

No…it’s not. It’s free to download and to use, but the expectation that people contribute in exchange for using it is how FOSS has always worked.

That doesn’t necessarily mean monetary. But contributing can be helping with user guides, or making youtube tutorials, or even just extending the reach of the program to friends and family by talking about it.

There are many ways to contribute, and money is one. But the notion that Open Source software is “free as in beer” has never been correct. Users have an expectation to contribute…period.

Unfortunately, there has always been the issue that a not-insignificant percentage of users of FOSS software believe the FREE part means “free as in beer” and take umbrage when asked to contribute.

I’ve long been a proponent (and I know I’m in a minority) that has advocated for a shift in the marketing of FOSS applications from “donation based” to “value based”. Meaning that the expectation is that if you enjoy the software, you pay an amount that you believe is commensurate to your use. This is voluntarily of course…if you can’t pay, than please use it and enjoy it. But those who can pay, should pay…at least a little bit, to offset the costs for those who can’t.

It’s more or less that the wording of FOSS apps needs to change so that you are expected to contribute if you can.

Just my opinion. Like I said, I know I’m in the minority. Just not a fan of the percentage of users that has always existed that (falsely) think that asking for money for your project is somehow anathema to the Open Source ideal and whine whenever they’re asked to contribute.

Thank you for that link. It allowed me to get some things off my chest. lol

Something that doesn’t get a lot of airtime with most of us “city-folk” is the fact that Farm Equipment manufactures enact the same policies for farmers whose combines and other equipment break down. This represents untold millions in lost productivity during harvest, and it’s something that I hear a lot about because of my small city’s proximity to a number of large farm operations.

I also talked a lot about releasing an appliances software kernel as FOSS once that appliance has reached the end of manufacturers support. But that would be an added bonus that I don’t see ever coming to fruition sadly.

Unfortunately Saskatchewan (my province). Alberta next door is Texas, and Saskatchewan wants to be like them, but our government is far far dumber.

Our Mini-Desantis is Pierre Pollieve.

Like it or not, what happens in America ripples through the whole world. Doubly so in Canada because we share a very long border.

Our politicians especially tend to follow the trends that politicians down there set; to the point where we have our own little mini-DeSantis running for Prime Minister.

Thank you. You get it. The problem isn’t a labour shortage, it’s a pay shortage. Rather than increase wages along with the demand for labour, they get cheap labour rubber stamped from overseas because the government lets them.

responding to real worker shortages

I have to disagree. And I’m as left as they come by the way. I don’t blame immigrants for wanting to come her to make a better life. I blame the corporations for taking advantage of that and the government for rubber stamping LMIA applications.

We’ll take my little nothing town for example. Swift Current, Saskatchewan. According to the LMIA map available here, we have 84 approved temporary foreign workers, mostly in coffee chains, convenience stores and gas stations.

Meanwhile, as a retail manager, I get five or six resumes a week from people who are either a) naturalised immigrants b) Canadian by birth, or c) folks who have just recently finished up their own TFW “contract” for lack of a better word.

So the way that LMIA works is that the business owner “applies” to the federal government and makes the case that they need to get a cheap overseas labourer because there isn’t any local person available to do the job. So in a town of 15000 people, there aren’t 84 unemployed people looking for part time work? I know for a fact that that’s not true because I get them applying here all the time.

The fact is, these corporations apply for an LMIA because they don’t have to pay them more than the bare minimum for an “x” amount of time. Then when that time comes up, rather than giving our raises, they don’t give them raises, forcing them (who are now effectively naturalised) to go find another job, freeing the corporation up to apply for ANOTHER LMIA, which gets rubber stamped.

Like I said, I’m as left as they come. This country is made by it’s immigrants. It’s rich because of our multicultural history. Immigration is a great thing. Hell, I’m a first generation Canadian. But the temporary foreign worker program is just a way for companies to use indentured servitude to create a “service class” made up of immigrants.

It’s absolutely insane that our media is so linked to the United States that our Conservatives only start to fall when people see American Conservatives getting beat-down and shamed in the presidential race. (and rightly so)

Are we, as Canadians, unable to tell how shitty our own Right-Wing is unless the American Mirror tells us so?

• The switch to progressive lenses happened far sooner than I was hoping.

• Graying in the beard stayed away for a long time, and then in a matter of a year, decided to attack with all of its might. (Probably the same on my head too, but I’ve been shaving it forever so I wouldn’t know)

• Heartburn troubles. Though that was less about ageing and more about gaining weight after quitting smoking twelve years ago.

I prefer to block individual users rather than whole communities simply because doing so could lead to an echo chamber of not proper mitigated.

However, I do block anything related to anime or waifu. And general porn.

I’m not prude, but Lemmy is where I come to discuss/debate a range of topics with others so I’d like to be able to open it in public.

True. But it’s the proportions of each that matter. And the type of salt and vineger.

• Vinegar goes first because it gives the salt a sticking surface. Apply it when the fries are fresh so that it soaks in a bit better.

• heavy on the salt before the vinegar has fully soaked in. Then toss the fries and add a little bit when serving.

• Sea salt and Malt vinegar are the best, but any old salt and vinegar will do in a pinch.

Salt and Vinegar.

Never really liked ketchup.

Mom, yes. Dad, no.

Dad’s a bigot that doesn’t understand why he can’t use “those kind of words” these days so he rants about it in private.

HOWEVER…he would never say it to their face, he’s at least THAT self-aware. And for the most part, he wouldn’t hassle them (or anyone).

While his personal beliefs are most certainly bigoted. He’s anti-LGBTQ+, anti-indigenous (we’re in Canada), anti-immigrant (he himself IS a fucking immigrant…smh)

But his biggest trait is simply live and let live. He doesn’t agree with them, but he has no interest in forcing that disagreement upon them.

He basically believes in everyone minding their own damn business regardless of what they may personally believe.

What happened to revoking passports for people awaiting trial?

Does anyone actually believe they’ll come back when the trial begins?

That is quite literally not how attraction works.

As someone already mentioned, the more you get to know a person, the more attractive (or less attractive) they objectively become to you. I firmly believed that my wife was beautiful, and as our relationship soured and she started cheating on me, she quite literally became physically uglier in my eyes.

It’s just how the brain works. If you love someone, they’re beautiful. End of story.

Well that should give Trudeau a nice boost in popularity, I’m guessing. I’m relatively sure we’re not crying in our Molson Canadians because a 'roided out douche isn’t going to come here.

Hard to pin a number on it, percentage-wise.

• Desktop and laptop are both running Linux.
• Chromebook wiped and running Linux.
• Most software, but definitely not all. Steam, Resolve being the two biggest non-foss items on my desktop, while my ex-Chromebook has a proprietary screenwriting program, as well as OnlyOffice instead of LibreOffice because I need much better Excel compatibility for work and LO still isn’t quite there for it.
• Phone android. But not entirely de-googled. Replaced drive with syncthing, keep with Joplin, photos, phone, and messenger with their Fossify equivalents and disabled the originals. Replaced gboard with heliboard, etc…

But can’t/won’t completely replace the OS yet because both google pay and android auto are essential to me and getting them working on most replacements is still a royal pain in the butt.

So let’s call it 80%, maybe a bit more?