Free Software on Ivon's Blog

For a FOSS Digital Camera System, an Android Phone + Open Camera is The Answer

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Wed, 13 May 2026 10:00:00 +0800

I thought about a question: does an open source digital camera system exist?

Does an open source photography image-processing workflow exist? There are open source image-processing programs like GIMP, Krita, digiKam, and darktable. But first we have to solve the problem of the upstream image-capturing device, right?

Those DSLR cameras and camcorders with apertures much larger than phones, such as the ones made by Nikon and Sony, all run closed-source OSes, don’t they?

Is it possible to have a digital camera whose low-level drivers and software are all open? I do not mean just a Raspberry Pi with a camera attached, that kind of toy.

A camera that lacks open source software makes me unable to bring myself to buy it. Actually, I cannot afford it either :P

It is just like how I refuse to buy home consoles such as the Switch or PS5 because I reject proprietary software. They have taken away the open source achievements of BSD. The Steam platform is barely acceptable. But playing proprietary Steam games on a PC is already enough inner torment for me.

Even Android camera photography technology seems to be controlled to a large extent by the algorithms of closed-source apps. Every phone manufacturer develops its own stock camera app, forcing us to depend on these closed-source apps.

Even though we have feature-rich open source apps like Open Camera, FreeDCam, and Photon Camera, they still cannot fully support the lens hardware features of every phone, such as 30x AI zoom or the algorithms behind photo beautification.

As for the algorithms that perform post-processing after a photo is taken, those are even more the trade secrets of the major manufacturers. Sony, Xiaomi, Pixel, and Samsung all have their own flavor. Even if you can port Gcam to other phones, you still cannot figure out what is going on with the algorithms behind it.

As a result, even if photos taken by OpenCamera are a notch below those from the stock camera, it becomes purely a matter of the image sensor’s hardware capability. You need more manual parameter intervention, or you save as RAW and then manually retouch with digiKam.

Still, Android is at least more mature than pure Linux when it comes to accessing camera hardware features. Look at the official AOSP documentation: at least Camera2API can adjust ISO, and Pixel even has official open APIs that let third-party apps use Night Sight.

If you try to drive IMX components in a pure GNU/Linux environment, it is even harder. On Linux, you should already thank heaven if libcamera can make the camera work normally. Nobody is studying the discipline of taking photos.

The guy responsible for writing the Megapixels camera app for PinePhone only barely managed to put together a pipeline.

In short, buying an Android phone with strong enough lens hardware, flashing it with LineageOS, and using Open Camera, just as I did with the Sony Xperia 1 III, is a more acceptable way to do open source photography. If the low-level drivers have to be closed-source, then so be it.

Hackintosh Is Dead, and That Is Fine. Using macOS Is Itself an Act of Promoting an Unfree System

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 16:00:00 +0800

Hackintosh is (kind of) dead.

Why use Hackintosh? Or rather, why use macOS?

Macbook and iPhone are prisons, yet users willingly accept Apple’s cage. It has even become fashionable, with people proudly identifying as Apple fans and forming commodity fetishism.

Borrowing what Richard Stallman said on RT, ordinary people were persuaded by Steve Jobs’s rhetoric. They feel Macbook is trendy and cool, and voluntarily run to the Apple Store saying, please put handcuffs on me!

Richard Stallman Talks About Free Software RT News (at 10:58)

Here we can add one sentence: engineers think Unix-based systems are convenient, so sacrificing freedom is fine. Give me a pair of handcuffs too! Look, I spent a lot of money buying overpriced handcuffs with my name engraved on them!

Worshiping Apple’s physical products is already exaggerated, but worshiping an OS is even more exaggerated. The Hackintosh community, formed to install macOS on hardware not officially sold by Apple, is a typical example.

In 2020, Apple began migrating toward the ARM architecture and gradually abandoned support for x86 Mac computers.

Combining Apple’s official information and media reports, macOS 26 should be the last macOS version to support the x86_64 architecture. In the future, even the highest-end iMac Pro, as long as it uses an Intel processor, will be unable to upgrade. From now on, only ARM-based Macs can be used.

So ordinary x86 computers will no longer have Hackintosh to play with. Hackintosh is (almost) dead. At least you cannot install the latest macOS. Although older macOS versions can still be installed on x86 hardware compatible with Hackintosh, mainstream software will slowly abandon support. At the current stage, the open source community’s effort to crack Apple Silicon has produced Asahi Linux, but macOS still cannot be installed on ARM devices not produced by Apple.

Actually, I think this is fine. Let people completely give up on Hackintosh. For more than 20 years, those running Hackintosh were essentially engaging in big-company bootlicking.

Let me tell a Hackintosh cold fact everyone knows: when installing Hackintosh, you usually need to add the following string to the bootloader to successfully decrypt the kernel and boot:

ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)applecomputerinc

This string is Dont Steal Mac OS.kext. Look how well they protect their own OS intellectual property! Running macOS on non-Apple-certified hardware is theft! And you actually want to cater to this company’s face?

The bootlickers here exclude those great people enthusiastic about making open source boot solutions, such as OpenCore and Clover. They have contributed a lot, studying the structure of macOS, writing piles of plist and kext files, making drivers not officially recognized by Apple run. Maybe they can truly help the open source community reverse engineer a completely free macOS someday. For example, ravynOS is a macOS-like system mixing the Darwin kernel with FreeBSD open source components. Its existence is somewhat similar to ReactOS, which reverse engineers Windows. Only using Hackintosh for this kind of research purpose is beneficial.

But I am mainly talking about the mentality of Hackintosh users. It is bootlicking, or perhaps calling them “apple” polishers is better? They satisfy their own vanity by cracking the things of a large company. But macOS remains closed source software, evil capital stealing the fruits of the BSD revolution. This is also BSD’s fault. Who told FreeBSD to use BSD license terms that make it easy to get cucked instead of the GPL? Pathetic.

GPL Is Better Than BSD for Software Licensing: Insist on Militant Democracy and Talk More About Free Software Than Open Source Software

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 05:00:00 +0800

What makes GPL better than BSD licensing is that it is a kind of militant democracy.

Positive Freedom Beats Negative Freedom
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Adapting the concept of militant democracy (Wehrhafte Demokratie), GPL is a secret formula for protecting the free software movement so it can continue for the long term.

Therefore, software development should use GPL to preserve the spirit of freedom and carry through the free spirit of Copyleft, rather than permissive terms such as BSD, MIT, and Apache. If you are going to use this kind of license that is almost no different from releasing copyright into the Public Domain, you might as well just use WTFPL and be done with it!

We should talk more about Free Software rather than Open Source. GPL does not restrict the freedom; instead, it protects the freedom!

Although both are open source operating systems, where BSD systems fall short compared with GNU/Linux systems is that they lack the spirit of the GPL. Without this moral appeal, the power of the whole community is weakened, becoming pure volunteer labor and a system that lets others take whatever they want.

To put it harshly, the BSD License is basically a “Cuck License,” a cuckold clause. The GPL license is: I let you ride my wife, but your husband also has to let me ride him. The BSD license is: you voluntarily let your wife get ridden by others, receive nothing in return, and still think it is fine!

An image describing the consequences of the Cuck License. The rough idea is that the professor who originally developed Minix released it under a BSD license with the attitude of doing good, never expecting Intel to take it and make Intel ME, a massive surveillance software at the CPU low-level.

From Luke Smith’s website

The hacker community alone is not a powerful enough weapon against the capital of large corporations. It also needs the guidance of the free software movement to protect software freedom. Compared with BSD license terms, GPL can guarantee the healthy future development of software, meaning that after software opens its source code, it must provide equal contribution back, preventing the software from being easily monopolized. GPL itself is unfriendly to existing business models, and the name “free software” is also not as business-friendly as the name “open source software.”

This is built on a high-risk gamble: only if the first company is willing to invest in this rule and spiritually identify with the spirit of GPL can it possibly succeed and develop a complete ecosystem. At present, Linux’s great gamble back then seems to have succeeded. Companies really are willing to support Linux development, with RedHat as a typical example.

Although many companies are now trying to technically bypass GPL, stealing or parasitizing the achievements of the Linux Kernel to develop their own closed-source products, the impact brought by GPL is still enormous, ensuring that the center of Linux is forever free and open source.

Notes from the SLAT Software Liberty Association Taiwan 2026 Member Meeting

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 18:00:00 +0800

Because I met Hsu Chia-chun at the KaLuG 2603 meetup and was pulled into SLAT’s exclusive Mattermost small-circle group, I stated that I would definitely attend this year’s Software Liberty Association Taiwan (SLAT) member meeting.

March 28, 2026, happened to be the day of the Students’ Information Technology Conference (SITCON). Because traveling from Kaohsiung to Taipei takes too much time, there was no way to make it.

This time I went north to attend the SLAT meeting, but because of Ubus I arrived two hours late. As a result, the meeting ended early and everyone had already run off. GG. I could only awkwardly chat with the people who stayed behind about what was fun at SITCON.

I looked at the agenda on SLAT’s NextCloud. It was mostly sharing what members had done, including the practice of introducing free software into medical systems, and two new books to be published soon, one of which was the printing of 《電腦上試跑 LINUX：硬體測試筆記》. Mm-hmm, it seems… I probably did not need to rush to take the bus early in the morning and suffer from Ubus delays. If I had known, I would have just bitten the bullet and taken the high-speed rail.

After having the experience of attending KaLuG, I knew that although I did not have much to say, I had to gather courage, overcome social anxiety, and not run away directly like two years ago. I had to talk with people. It is a bit of a pity that I did not get to talk with Professor Hung Chao-Kuei.

The main thing was exchanging experiences with Bo-Ren Lin about using reMarkable 2 e-paper. Wow, it is color e-paper. The matte screen makes writing notes feel just like writing on paper. They claim this is an open Linux system that provides SSH and Root privileges, but it is not completely open either. You need to use their proprietary format to install APPs, and you cannot install Linux desktop software. Also, although it supports color, the PPI is low and the colors are dim… at most it prevents you from being unable to distinguish dark tables when reading. Looking at it this way, the NT$20,000 price seems worse than an iPad. I originally thought it could install a Debian system by itself like the Pine64 PineNote, but reMarkable 2 seems to be cut from the same cloth as mainstream e-paper manufacturers.

At this point, Wally Lian came over and told us the story of how their company developed a Jin Yong novels e-paper device and failed miserably.

I also asked Bo-Ren Lin about Ubuntu contributor packaging issues. And where translations should be contributed: if I want to fix missing translations in the GNOME desktop, should I report them upstream or to LaunchPad? I found that even though Ubuntu 24.04 LTS has been out for a long time, there are still incomplete translations. He briefly described the development process to me and said that if it is Ubuntu’s own thing, then contributions should probably go to LaunchPad. Bo-Ren Lin previously noticed that the GNOME desktop’s new-folder action could not use iBus to input Chinese, and helped fix Mutter. So impressive. I think it is because GNOME desktop upstream basically does not want you to put things on the desktop, and Ubuntu applied its own patch, so almost nobody noticed.

Linux Has Become Too Mainstream. Switch to BSD

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0800

Linux Has Become Too Mainstream, So I Considered Switching to BSD or Systems That Follow the Unix Philosophy.

Linux vs BSD for desktop, which one?

Lady Suwako told me that Linux has become too “mainstream”, so should I switch to a BSD system to inherit the Unix spirit? For the past week, this thought has kept appearing. After comparing Linux with BSD (or systems that follow the Unix philosophy), I kept wanting to switch over.

While writing this article, I felt that my digging into these rabbit holes had gone a bit too far.

Life is a well of delight; but where the rabble also drink, there all fountains are poisoned.

The Systemd Controversy: Once Again Standing in the Eye of the Storm
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When Systemd first appeared in 2010, it was heavily criticized by the Linux community. It was merely an init system, yet it tried to cover everything. But time has passed, and now it has become the common standard of mainstream Linux distributions, almost an indispensable system management tool.

Systemd has made everything too complicated, and the spirit of traditional Unix philosophy is disappearing. Systemd’s design affects every aspect of Linux, permeating major distributions and influencing developers’ future decisions. We, domesticated by modern technology, can no longer understand the principles by which operating systems work. Switching to a system without Systemd seems necessary.

Recently, in order to cater to age verification bills being promoted by U.S. states, Systemd developers added an OS-level age verification mechanism: userdb: add birthDate field to JSON user records#40954 This PR was quickly approved by Lennart Poettering and others, and they refused to revert it. Presumably Systemd 261 will officially include this feature.

This caused people’s grievances against Systemd to erupt again. Although Systemd’s age verification field is not mandatory and merely provides a field for other programs to access, some users with extreme pursuits of freedom and privacy believe this is the beginning of mass surveillance. The system’s low level fundamentally should not store sensitive data about user identity, and some people are extremely disgusted by public authority intervening in the issue of “os-level age verification.” Systemd manages too much, replacing many system services and violating the Unix philosophy. Now, it is aligning with the interests of large companies and governments. People are forced to swallow it, because Systemd is already the common standard of all major Linux distributions, and upstream changes quietly affect everyone downstream. Anyway, whatever function upstream wants to add, Systemd developers have the final decision-making power. What, you are not convinced?

Governments and corporations always love squeezing people’s freedom. When commercial companies develop software, they seem to like rushing to push new technologies and force everyone to swallow them. This is called Agile development or whatever. They only pursue 90% usability, not 100% stability. Anyway, after release, they keep iterating, exhausting users, and thereby achieve their goal of monopolizing the final right of interpretation. Then, in order to respond to commercial competitiveness and cater to so-called trends, they often make technical changes without regard for user experience, and so individual freedom is sacrificed. Users who have come into contact with the free software movement will surely be dissatisfied with this phenomenon.

Notes From the KaLuG 2603 Open Source Meetup

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 17:00:00 +0800

Today’s theme continued the lightning talk format. It had been two months since the previous meetup.

At Kaohsiung Student Union, we continued borrowing a free venue in the name of a student club (totally real).

Notes are on HackMD.

First, Shawn shared the development prospects of RedHat OpenShift, explaining the upstream and downstream development relationship between OKD and OCD. He clarified the relationship among Fedora, CentOS Stream, and RHEL, which made me understand that CentOS Stream is not actually that unstable. He thinks its positioning is close to Ubuntu LTS. CentOS Stream still has major version numbers and locks the kernel version. RedHat still sends fixes to CentOS Stream, and then the open source community helps test for bugs. Shawn believes this can form a healthier ecosystem. But I feel that if that is the case… then I might as well just use Ubuntu LTS.

He also introduced the benefits of Fedora CoreOS, which heavily adopts bootc and deploys systems in an image-based way. He mentioned that when the time is ripe, rpm-ostree may be replaced by composefs in the future, which can effectively use the Linux kernel’s erofs mechanism to handle system files. But what I want to ask is: now that there are already products implemented with bootc such as uBlue Bazzite, their biggest problem is that it is hard for users to manually install .rpm files locally; they can only rebuild the system image, called local layering. So how will composefs solve this problem? The two of us did not discuss our way to a satisfactory answer, and this technology is not finalized yet either. We can only wait and see in the future. Honestly, I do not want to manually build an image in the cloud and pull it down for deployment every time I want to install some extra package on the system.

Then I, with my shallow knowledge and limited learning, went on stage to demonstrate Phosh, introducing the development process of the Linux phone ecosystem and the possibility of replacing Android. For the slides, I used the Phosh desktop introduction I made a few months ago. Although everyone present was quite interested in the Poco F1 (postmarketOS) and Pinetab 2 (Arch Linux ARM) I brought, as someone who was tortured by these devices for a long time and finally resigned myself to using an iPad, I had all kinds of mixed feelings… Phones and tablets that can run Linux are indeed very interesting toys, but they are only toys.

Hsu Chia-Chun from the Software Liberty Association Taiwan (SLAT) demonstrated the AI features of Nextcloud Office. They had already launched Copilot-like assistance features similar to Microsoft Office at the end of 2023, mainly implemented by connecting to external language model APIs such as ChatGPT. However, he mentioned that this cannot be processed asynchronously, and even running a simple text translation takes a long wait… It seems there are still many rough edges. This kind of web-based AI solution should really learn from Google Docs. It is truly a blessing for lazy people.

Free Software Issues to Keep in Mind When Talking About 3C With Girls

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 16:00:00 +0800

This is an article about how to talk about Linux with girls. Or, to put it more popularly, “how to talk about 3C topics with girls.”

Author: Anonymous

Source: internet copypasta

Translation
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Let’s talk about free software issues in dating.

As a 20-year-old single man, I think it is very hard to find girls interested in free software. I once met girls who jokingly asked, “Want to watch Netflix together?” but I told them I do not watch Netflix because Netflix requires proprietary software DRM to stream. Then they stopped talking to me. Even worse, if they stayed, they would find out I am weird, because I used the host file to block all of Google’s IPs, so we could not even watch Youtube. I cannot even invite girls to my house, and I cannot send messages to them. Since my phone has a custom ROM installed, and because I refuse to use SMS due to security concerns, once I get girls’ numbers, I require them to install free and open source IRC messaging software. Then I share my GPG key with them to ensure communication security. None of my friends are willing to do this. And I cannot use sites like Tinder either, because they are proprietary software and greatly violate user privacy. Why is it so hard to find girls interested in free software? Looks like I am going to be a wizard for the rest of my life.

By the way, this article is released under GPLv3. You may freely modify and publish it, but remember to share your changes with me.

Taiwan-Localized Version
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Let’s talk about free software issues in dating.

As a 20-year-old guy who has been single since birth, I think it is very hard to find girls interested in free software. I once met girls who jokingly asked, “Want to Netflix and chill, song ji le?” but I told them I do not watch Netflix because Netflix requires proprietary software DRM to stream. Then they stopped talking to me. Even worse, if they stayed, they would find out I am weird, because I used the /etc/host file to block all of Google’s IPs, so we could not even watch Youtube. I cannot even invite girls to my house, and I cannot send messages to them. Since my phone has a custom ROM installed, and because I refuse to use SMS due to security concerns, once I get girls’ LINE, I require them to install free and open source IRC messaging software. Then I share my GPG Key with them to ensure communication security. None of my friends are willing to do this. And I cannot use sites like Dcard Draw Cards either, because they are proprietary software and greatly violate user privacy. Why is it so hard to find girls interested in free software? Looks like I am going to be a wizard for the rest of my life.

Unfunny Programming Memes: Explaining the Intent Behind My PTT Signatures

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 21:00:00 +0800

Original memes attached as signatures when the PTT account “ivon852” posts, with explanations of their meanings and meme sources.

Most of them are related to free software and Linux topics.

If you want to steal my memes: go ahead. The memes here are all licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

No Longer Buying SBCs for Cost-Performance Ratio
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After you no longer buy SBCs for cost-performance ratio: “I pledge myself to the valuable Raspberry Pi.”

Explanation: There are many manufacturers making ARM SBCs, but the Raspberry Pi series launched by the Raspberry Pi Foundation counts as the most successful product. Although SBCs produced by other Chinese manufacturers have a higher cost-performance ratio, they often have problems such as closed-source drivers, Linux support lagging behind Android, manufacturers taking the lead in violating the GPL, and communities that are not large enough.

Meme source: 「我投靠有價值的民進黨」林飛帆哽咽嗆柯文哲

Explaining What distro-hopping Is
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Explaining what distro-hopping is: falling in love with someone else is a happy thing.

Explanation: So-called distro-hopping refers to the act of users switching Linux distributions. Because Linux distributions have diverse desktops and each distribution has its own characteristics, indecisive users will look at DistroWatch rankings and be tempted by memes from r/unixporn, frequently reinstalling their systems. This also means their hearts keep changing. After some exploration, which may take anywhere from a few years to who knows how long, many users will find the distribution that suits them best. By the way, the 1992 album Falling in Love with Someone Else Is a Happy Thing is very worth listening to. It is a masterpiece from before Wu Bai used Wu Chun-lin to make big money!

Meme source: Wu Bai’s album Falling in Love with Someone Else Is a Happy Thing (1992)

Debian Is Harder to Use Than Ubuntu
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When Debian is questioned by Ubuntu about why it is so hard to use: I am your father, damn it.

Explanation: Ubuntu is a system developed based on Debian. In a sense, you can say Debian is Ubuntu’s father, and the two have many similarities. However, Debian’s installer is not as friendly compared with Ubuntu’s, and many times you have to read the manual and type commands.

Meme source: 「我是你爸爸」！陳其邁斥王郁琦爆失言

When You Try to Install Non-Free Software
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Absolutely Proprietary! When you try to install non-free software/non-open-source software: sorry sorry sorry.

Explanation: Richard Stallman is the founder of the free software movement. Quite a few members of the free software community regard Richard Stallman as a religious leader, as if using proprietary software in violation of doctrine would disappoint him.

Meme source: The left side is a meme that often appears when attacking non-free software. The right side is the expression Houjou Satoko shows when her identity is exposed by Furude Rika in Higurashi: When They Cry - Sotsu.

Free Software Extremism: If You Insist Everything Must Be Open Source...

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 23:00:00 +0800

Free Software Extremism isn’t Far Enough. ← This title is so good I just copied it directly.

Why should we use free software led by Linux? Well, many people have already offered their brilliant opinions on this topic.

However, if you pursue free and open source everything…

You will be unable to move an inch.

This is a trap that some users who come into contact with Android & Linux and then follow the open source faith easily fall into.

The reason it is called extremism is that you stubbornly fight all the way to the end, refusing to compromise. You become an “open source chihuahua,” or an “open source obsessive,” going everywhere to “educate” Windows and macOS users that they should repent and use Linux.

Thus, you force yourself into an ideological dead end.

Note: In this article, when I use free software, most of the time it also includes the definition of open source software.

Swallowing the Red Pill
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We can understand how far the most fanatical free software lovers can go by looking at this tech newbie vs. tech master image. I once had the experience of sliding toward the right side, but because of various factors, I ultimately did not reach the most extreme state. I realized that humans do have limits after all, so my current state is somewhere between 2 and 3.

In another crazy universe, Jobs and Bill Gates, who made proprietary software, would both have to go to prison. From: Luke Smith - Free Software Extremism isn’t Far Enough.

If you enter the world of free software through some of the “manifestos” from the Free Software Foundation, rather than merely learning about open source culture through Github, it is very easy to be brainwashed by this idea and become a believer in free software ideology. Cannot understand it? Here are some Chinese translations, and the tone is very intense: GNU專案的理念思想

The most important part is the four freedoms:

Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program for any purpose.

Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works and modify the program to suit your own needs. Access to the source code is a precondition for realizing this freedom.

Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute the program in order to help your neighbor.

Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program and contribute those improvements back to the community, so the whole community can benefit. Access to the source code is a precondition for realizing this freedom.

This feels like reading The Communist Manifesto. It has strong agitational power, and with its emphasis on the spirit of sharing, it easily makes people think this is communism. But free software is not communism; I discussed this in a previous article.

Believers in free software ideology think that insisting on free software is an act consistent with moral principles. Therefore, they gradually begin detoxing the things around them, to the point that from top to bottom, they pursue absolute “freedom.” They swallow the red pill and gradually understand the truth of the world.

Notes from the KaLuG 2512 Open Source Community Meetup

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0800

For the previous two months, we met at the shared space of Second Space. Today, for the first time, we moved to the larger club meeting room of Xiongxiaolian. From the floor-to-ceiling windows on the 9th floor, you can overlook the scenery of Central Park across the street.

Today’s theme was in the form of lightning talks.

Agenda: 2512- 第一次雄校聯聚會

Shawn shared how he transformed a Pi500 into a genuinely usable computer. Add an external monitor, and the cost is getting close to an Android tablet. Not to mention that the Wayland desktop still has to be configured by yourself. As expected, he also encountered the problem where Fcitx5 cannot input Chinese in certain GTK programs.

A high school student came up to share the 鑽石Minecraft伺服器託管 service they operate. Although part of it is modified from the public Pterodactyl Panel, it is still very impressive. It has a complete management system that can hot-swap Minecraft server cores without typing commands. It reminded me of a feat like Aternos.

The topic YC wanted to solve for the FRRouting Project was too specialized. This is basically at a level only industry insiders can answer, right? I could only keep nodding and pretend I understood. Phew, if we had to do a group discussion, I am afraid I would not be able to help.

Peter seemed very interested in Android flashing and degoogle projects, and even wanted to make a website providing flashing information. Mm-hmm, this kind of website is already rare in the Chinese-speaking world. There is almost no professional discussion forum like XDA. But his understanding of process terminology was not very deep, and after asking, I found out he indeed had never flashed a phone before. I think having actual hands-on experience would make it easier for people to understand the reasons for flashing! If you want to persuade others to flash their phones, start by flashing your main phone to LineageOS! Personally bear the pain of failing Play Integrity! When I said this, Amos, who was next to me holding a Samsung folding phone worth tens of thousands of Taiwan dollars, retreated a little. Well, after all, Samsung is a very nasty company, using the permanent Knox fuse mechanism to threaten people not to flash their phones.

For the first time, someone told me face to face that they read my blog, and there were more than two of them. They thanked me because my Fcitx5 tutorial content had helped them. I felt extremely happy and also bashful, because this blog has too many embarrassing things……

Amos talked about the CC 4.0-licensed open source album project 《時間浸漬》, launched through cooperation between Lin Chiang & Luca Bonaccorsi and the Open Culture Foundation. It is really super interesting. I really like his works after 娛樂世界, and I did not expect that he is still so avant-garde now, willing to explore new business models for the music industry. By the way, when Radiohead released In Rainbows, they also tried an innovative method where buyers decided the purchase amount themselves. Radiohead and U2: making money by giving music away for free - The Conversation

Socially Dead Moments from Preaching Linux to Ordinary People, Too Cringe!

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0800

Preaching Linux to ordinary passing normies, painfully cringe (げきさむ).

I have a relative who is a furry, goes to Furry Infinity meetups, knows a bit of 3D modeling, likes playing R6, and is also a Megaport Festival live-music guy, while I only go to CWT. I say I use Arch Linux btw all day and suggest that he switch his system to Linux.
While taking an Ubuntu basics course offered to freshmen, I debated with the professor about the difference between soft links and hard links, leaving the Linux beginner classmates next to me completely confused.
I suggested to the professor that papers should not use the proprietary font Times New Roman. We should use the free Liberation Serif!
At an NTU Bahamut board meetup, I introduced Ubuntu on my laptop to a KanColle admiral.
When statistical software could not run on Linux, an older sister figure who only knew what a Macbook was asked me why I used this weird system.
Nobody had heard of Duckduckgo. When I said there are search engines other than Google, it drew a wave of awkward stares.
While taking an English teaching methodology course, I used GCC bootstrapping as an analogy for linguistic grammar bootstrapping, drawing a speechless silence.
When taking a course using the operating systems dinosaur book, I insisted on installing MSYS2 on a Windows computer and using Vim to write multithreaded programs. The result produced by GCC was different from the teacher’s MSVC.
Even though it was clearly a course teaching .Net Windows Forms, I demonstrated how it ran translated through Wine on Linux.
I secretly installed LibreOffice on the shared office computer, and it has not been noticed to this day. Maybe they think this Office 2007 just looks strangely weird.
At a GenAI teaching site, I yelled fuck you Nvidia, we should buy AMD or Intel graphics cards and install them to run on Linux, what the hell is Windows even. But they said that after using Linux, they often broke the graphical interface and did not want to try anymore.
When someone asked what an old Windows XP laptop could still do and said they were willing to try all kinds of systems, I suggested they install Plan 9.
In a professional translators’ group, I suggested using Weblate, commonly used for open source collaboration, instead of the commercial software Crowdin, and got blasted by pragmatists.
Wandering around the College of Liberal Arts wearing free software clothes, like old man Richard Stallman (おやじ), makes me feel he could wear the same signature red shirt from youth to old age. What is slightly sad is that in the past, almost nobody in the College of Liberal Arts recognized the FreeBSD daemon and Linux penguin on my clothes. I should go walk around the College of Science.

All of these problems were only relieved after I attended the small-circle meetups of Kaohsiung KaLuG and Taipei SLAT. I do not want to be a script kiddie anymore. This is the real domain that belongs to super hackers! One day I will go to COSCUP!

Notes from the KaLuG 2510 Open Source Community Meetup

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 17:00:00 +0800

Today, first I listened to Shawn share about “All Systemd Go,” a conference attended by Systemd developers. It turns out there really are conferences for every kind of project. This kind of conference for discussing specialized subjects can only be held abroad.

Agenda: KaLUG meetup 2510 - kernel 遇上 user space

It feels like we have been talking about Linux kernel things for two months in a row. It is truly an honor to invite skilled developers to share.

The Linux kernel feature I heard about at today’s KaLuG that is worth looking forward to is the sched_ext project. It includes results contributed by developers from NCKU in Taiwan and was introduced in Linux 6.12. It allows users to change the scheduler from userspace through eBPF, achieving custom scheduling operations. You can even configure cgroups, with each cgroup independently running a different scheduler. In the past, achieving this required recompiling the kernel; after all, there were only so many built-in schedulers. But if clients want to implement their own schedulers for specific work scenarios, upstream obviously cannot accept merging every scheduler. Therefore, this provides an economical method that lets users define their own.

The most intuitive application of sched_ext is improving game performance. CachyOS was the first to build in a mechanism for switching sched_ext. According to the official documentation, they provide multiple scheduler implementations for users to choose from, such as scx_bpfland, which can reduce latency. But some people say Bore Scheduler performs the best. Hmm… this kind of scheduling play probably really requires running very demanding games to measure the difference; otherwise it is just benchmark scores for your own amusement.

Shawn brought a Pi500 computer. So this computer really does look like this. Hmph, I think if it is going to be used as a server, the case should still be as small as possible.

In the middle, so everyone could get to know each other, we gathered around the round table and introduced ourselves one by one. Hmm… I did not have much to mention, so I simply talked about my current professional identity and the Linux distribution I usually use. That’s it. But the official FreeBSD T-shirt I wore seems to have successfully drawn attention.

Speaking of which, from Amos of OCF I learned that people involved in open source projects are not necessarily full-time programmers. That made this script kiddie feel much more reassured and relaxed.

Sunset mentioned that Facebook’s standards for randomly Zucking people are unpredictable, and I deeply agree. The most infuriating part is that Meta’s button for reporting and requesting review is still broken. Whether on Facebook or Threads, it throws errors and does not even let you fill in a reason. The current mechanism retroactively settles scores: for some unknown reason, an old post might violate the rules one day and get taken down, and it might randomly ban a domain. From survivor bias, when you see those low-quality short-video shitposts and scam ads all getting away with it, it really makes you nauseous. These platforms truly do not value digital human rights. It reminds me of someone at KaLuG saying that they posted a late-night snack post and it was successfully maliciously reported… Facebook’s standards are inconsistent. I sincerely hope the AI reviewers and human reviewers’ entire families drop dead. Recently they even hypocritically sent me a user survey, asking whether they were Zucking people too excessively? No shit. I only treat social media messages as temporary places to store information, intended to share the flow of information and guide traffic to other important websites. I do not believe every post can live as long as a blog article. Therefore, this way of thinking is safe. Even if I get Zucked, the psychological sense of loss will not be too great, because all of this is only temporary. I can just skillfully post the same thing again another day. As for self-hosting a Mastodon instance to avoid censorship, even though he claims you can host one with a single Raspberry Pi… I do not have the guts. I will keep parasitizing mastodon.social.

Notes From the KaLuG 2509 Open Source Community Meetup

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Sat, 13 Sep 2025 17:00:00 +0800

Today’s topic was writing Linux kernel modules with Rust. For a language that will enter the kernel in the future, it is necessary to understand it early.

Recording: KaLUG meetup 2509 - Rust 的奇妙冒險：Hello Heaven (Rust for Linux)

When attending KaLUG this time, it was also my first time seeing an actual NixOS user in real life… I have always wanted to try this system, but I am very worried about whether I would fall into a cult I cannot escape.

After all, declarative reproducible systems are not mainstream. Are you pretending Ansible does not exist? For cross-distribution package installation solutions, there are currently Flatpak, AppImage, Snap, Nix, Guix, and so on. There are even stranger solutions like Podman + Distrobox. pip and npm are not included because they are not designed specifically for packaging Linux software. Although each implementation differs, all of them can achieve cross-distribution software use. One situation for using cross-distribution package installation solutions is: wanting to install unstable packages on a stable system, such as having Debian Stable’s stable system and Arch Linux’s latest packages. Which solution to choose depends on which functions users care about more. If you do not care about containerization and want contact without a sleeve, use AppImage or Nix. Nix is more suitable for developers, and it feels like the Homebrew experience on macOS. Its package management mechanism also guarantees that software will absolutely not destroy dependencies, as if statically linked, and can 100% roll back. If you can accept some container permission restrictions, there are many choices. There is no need to rush to decide which is better. In the end, it still depends on which format developers prefer, which they are more willing to package, and whether users can easily obtain the software. In my view, Flatpak and Snap are more user-friendly, while Distrobox is purely a developer tool, and like Nix, it requires high-level skill to use.

Hawawa, the laptop brought by sponsor OCF Open Culture Foundation finally let me touch a real Framework laptop. The factory Framework 12 brought by QA is one of the laptop brands with the best Linux compatibility besides ThinkPad, almost requiring no extra drivers. With only one screwdriver, the keyboard can be removed from the front, exposing all internal structures (although it has a bit of FNAF body-horror feeling). All parts are modularly designed and freely replaceable.

Although this machine is a bit thick, considering it can rotate 360 degrees and has a touchscreen, it is actually not heavy. If I have money in the future, I definitely have to buy one. Yes, if I really have money. By the way, after recently listening to the Rust for Linux kernel talk (X) evangelism conference (O), I learned that Rust entering the Linux kernel is already an inevitable trend. From originally only being a language for writing kernel module drivers, to penetrating Rust’s interface layer with C, and counterattacking into the kernel interior!!! Although there is still a lot of resistance.

Why Choose Mainstream Linux Distros Over Niche Ones?

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 14:00:00 +0800

Why Do I Recommend Choosing Mainstream Linux Distributions? Niche Distributions Have Plenty of Problems!

What Linux distribution do I recommend? I can only say that people should use mainstream Linux distributions more.

The longer I use Linux, the more I want to solve fragmentation through dictatorship. Yet free software can never be unified.

The deeper I go down the FOSS rabbit hole, the more I gradually discover that I am standing on the anti-diversity side.

There is a joke that it is hard for Linux computers to get infected because there are too many distributions, and every system’s libraries are different, so viruses easily show no such file or directory when executed.

To solve this problem, all we can do is call on everyone to think clearly about what they are pursuing.

I have no decision-making power over the Linux community. These are only my own thoughts. This is yet another rant.

Diversity for Diversity’s Sake
#

Let’s start with an article: Grub & Systemd, A FOSS Monopoly. Am I the only one that sees Linux Unity as a bad idea?

Seeing this, I could not help thinking of the meme: “Can you be smarter than the ancestors? Zhang Xianzhong.jpg”

People who refuse to accept change and casually bring out the “Unix philosophy” to pontificate need to change. Even now, there are still people opposing Systemd, deliberately choosing distributions with other inits. Their reason for insisting on this, “do one thing and do it well”, looks more ridiculous as time passes. The same applies to other new Linux technologies, such as Wayland, Pipewire, Flatpak, and so on. These things are slowly becoming the standards of the next-generation Linux desktop. Although they are not perfect, we should remain optimistic. Yet there are still many people who do not criticize the progress of these things from a technical perspective. Instead, they rely on mockery and insults (just think of the ranting tone of 4chan /g/ users), believing everything is a RedHat conspiracy to rule the world. Someone even created a flatkill.org website to attack Flatpak.

Just like social activists who desperately insist DRM is a bad thing, they emotionally say, I oppose it! But if they cannot offer a better solution (such as making something like LibreDRM), then it is just blind opposition.

Although open source community fragmentation has long been in the genes of Linux distributions, and some users deliberately love promoting weird distributions just to be different, even claiming diversity purely for the sake of being different, some things really should be standardized. This solution will not satisfy everyone, but at least the result will not be too bad.

What Counts as a Mainstream Linux Distribution
#

Now to the main topic.

My view of non-mainstream Linux distributions is shown in the image below. This image is truly hilarious. Hannah Montana Linux, made for the TV series Hannah Montana, is absolutely one of the most famous meme distros. And this thing wants to fight other distributions?

Should Linux Users Play Only Open Source Games?

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 14:00:00 +0800

If You Pursue Free Software on Linux, Should You Also Insist on Playing Open Source Games? Sharing a List of Open Source Games

Should you stick to playing free and open source games instead of proprietary ones when using free software on Linux？

Once upon a very long time ago, you owned the game, and the game owned you.

But now it is no longer like that.

In the past, I once published a hot take: you should not play Minecraft, because it is proprietary software and Microsoft has ruined it, especially Bedrock Edition, which added a pile of mobile-game monetization elements. After founder Notch left, Mojang had already lost its way!

You should switch to Luanti, a truly free block sandbox game (the point is freedom, not zero price!) It is cross-platform, written in C++, and is a Minecraft alternative. Inside it there is a subgame called VoxeLibre that can reproduce 99% of classic Minecraft gameplay, along with more mods than you can ever finish installing, plus built-in shader effects.

They are both about building houses, but playing Luanti makes my conscience feel better, ha! This is quite close to the level of madness of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). As a 10-year Minecraft PE veteran, switching to Luanti feels liberating!

If you use GNU/Linux, this free system, yet still install proprietary software, then impurities have mixed in and must be filtered out! As the saying goes, my Way is unified by one principle; software should all use free solutions!

“As long as you let one evil flower bloom… in the end, all of Gensokyo will be polluted. The fairies living inside the flowers will also be replaced, won’t they?” (Source)

But is this really good? What exactly are we pursuing?

1. Definition of Free Software Games
#

My own definition of free software games/open source games:

So-called games that pursue free software generally mean the code must be open source, use an open source license, and conform to the four freedoms advocated by the Free Software Foundation. The game itself must also be completely free, not controlled by DRM or restrictions on players’ rights.

The assets inside the game should use Creative Commons licenses and allow free reuse.

If a game allows players to install mods but the base game is still released as closed source, it still does not count as a free game. Examples include The Elder Scrolls, Hearts of Iron, Grand Theft Auto, Minecraft, Quake, Red Alert, and so on.

Even if you use an open source console emulator to play a game, if the ROM itself is still closed source, it still does not count as a free game. For example, playing Nintendo 64 games through RetroArch.

Games developed with closed source game engines should not be considered free software games, such as those using Unreal Engine. There are many open source game engines, such as Godot and Irrlicht.

Is the Free Software Movement a Kind of Communism?

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 22:00:00 +0800

Is free software, such as GNU/Linux, a kind of communism?

Free software (open source software) requires code to be open and allows others to freely use, modify, and redistribute it, which very easily makes people think of communism. This has been a frequently questioned issue since the free software movement developed in the 1980s. If we talk about the representative masterpiece of free software, it is the great operating-system family developed through the joint effort of developers around the world: GNU/Linux. Anyone, regardless of status, can contribute code, and the entire system kernel is open source and owned by the public. So does free software developed in this way count as a kind of communism?

Note: the free software movement strictly distinguishes its own attitude from the open source movement, because there are slight differences in their philosophies, and each side will accuse the other of missing the point. However, this article will provisionally treat them as the same concept: that is, free software includes the ideas of open source software.

1. Deriving from theory
#

If we want to ask whether the free software movement is communism, the roughest indicator is whether the means of production are publicly owned. In software development, this usually means code. In the information age, copying code has almost no cost. If development cost is not counted, the productivity of software is greatly increased.

The four essential freedoms of software proposed by RMS also have some similarities with communist ideas, but these words are precisely what most easily leads to misunderstanding.

Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program for any purpose.

Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.

Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the community, so that the whole community benefits. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

The ideas of these four freedoms are also embodied in the GPL license terms written by RMS and others.

If you consider these words carefully, you will observe where free software and communism are incompatible. First, free software does not oppose private property. The GPL emphasizes the right to freely use code, but the author still enjoys part of the rights. It is not the case that once software code is released, it becomes a resource that can be used without any limits. GPL is not the same concept as CC0. On the contrary, all users should follow the license terms of free software, and use software and code under conditions that protect users’ freedom.

Furthermore, although the code is public, no one can use any means to forcibly monopolize the code, or prevent others from viewing modified content. Instead, software should be used while maintaining a free-sharing model. Although the GPL has a viral infection property, meaning that if software uses GPL-licensed components, other parts will inevitably be forced to open source as well, users can absolutely choose not to use the GPL and instead use more permissive approaches such as LGPL to avoid this problem.

Reaching Above My Station Again: Attending the 2024 Software Liberty Association Membership Meeting

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Sat, 09 Mar 2024 23:00:00 +0800

Two years ago around now, I joined the Software Liberty Association Taiwan (SLAT). Roughly speaking, this is Taiwan’s nongovernmental organization equivalent to the Free Software Foundation in the United States. I joined because I identify with free software.

This year I finally attended the membership meeting in person. Before going north from Tainan, I already knew the rough agenda, which was about the association’s annual work report and preparations for upcoming LibreOffice Asia-related events.

This year’s meeting room was rented from III. Only after walking over did I realize that STR Network, the company behind The Night Night Show, was also in this building. Entering the meeting room and sweeping my gaze around, I finally learned who the people behind Jason Tools and the Toy Utopia blog on the internet were: humans, nothing special.

The meeting began, and I saw the familiar KDE desktop on the projector… even the person who later came to talk about BSD systems was also using the KDE desktop.

LibreOffice Asia Conference 2024 will be held in Taiwan this August or October. Should the association organize it independently, or should it be held together with COSCUP 2024? We will see how the chair coordinates it. Speaking of which, I also really want to go to COSCUP this year. If so, I can piggyback and show support. I hope it does not conflict with my Singapore itinerary. The association discussed that later they will also need to host travel itineraries for foreign guests… just thinking about it is complicated (puts on Tucker Carlson’s worried face). Better to focus on the program content.

Later, Taiwan’s LibreOffice Asia Conference 2024 was confirmed to be held in August this year, from the 2nd to the 4th, for a total of three days.

The chair mentioned that LibreOffice is a popular activity in Latin America, where many countries take turns holding conferences (I suppose so, since Latin America even has FSFLA responsible for linux-libre kernel development), while Asia has relatively fewer, with only Indonesia, Japan, and Taiwan having hosted it. Hosting it in China or Hong Kong? Damn, I had better not say.

Today I learned an important viewpoint: when governments introduce LibreOffice software, what they should value is the “ODF” format, not obsess over the software itself. This is a concept advocated by the association chair after exchanges with foreign LibreOffice communities. Very interesting. The association also plans to promote ODF certification exams.

Small gossip: part of the Software Liberty Association’s funding comes from the Ministry of Digital Affairs. Recently, Audrey Tang was severely criticized by KMT legislators, and the DPP also wants to grab that cushy post, which may affect us. Shivering. But relax, our Taiwan People’s Party legislators support Audrey Tang a lot.

Worth mentioning is that today’s meeting also invited people handling AsiaBSDCon 2024. This conference focuses on sharing technical discussions around the BSD family, and many heavyweight foreign developers will come to Taiwan to lecture, such as discussions on the ZFS file system. It is all relatively technical stuff. The gentleman who spoke today is even a full-time engineer hired by the FreeBSD Foundation. Too awesome.

Why You Should Self-Host Services, and How to Actually Do It

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 09:00:00 +0800

Self-hosting (self-hosted), also called “self-managed hosting” or “self-deployment”, is a computer science term meaning running network services on a private server to replace network services provided by large companies.

Refer to Wikipedia’s definition of Self-hosting:

Self-hosting is the practice of running and maintaining a website or service using a private web server, instead of using a service outside of someone’s own control. Self-hosting allows users to have more control over their data, privacy, and computing infrastructure, as well as potentially saving costs and improving skills.

For example, purchasing a server, placing it at home, installing Nextcloud, and replacing Google Drive, with all data controlled in your own hands, is a kind of self-hosting.

Self-hosting does not only mean setting up websites or file servers, but setting up a series of private web services. For almost every commercial network service you can think of, someone has made a self-hostable alternative.

This article discusses the reasons for self-hosting and concrete methods.

Reasons for Self-Hosting
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In the current internet era, people find a company that provides a specific network service, use and rely on its service, and place personal data on it.

Common network services include: photo albums, calendars, cloud drives, blogs, content management systems, e-books, video and audio streaming, password vaults, note software, game streaming services, search engines, VPNs… and so on.

However, many companies use free of charge as an appeal. In pursuit of profit, what they often sell is user privacy, such as collecting user data to serve ads. It can be considered an equivalent exchange. And for commercial competition, they also use various methods to retain users, making users hand over their important data while increasing the cost of getting off the pirate ship, so they can never leave.

Under the above premise, if personal data is regarded as the crystallization of a person’s effort, then it is the most precious asset. And this asset should not be bound. If users have spare energy and care about autonomy over their data and privacy, and do not want to sacrifice personal rights and interests by letting data be firmly controlled by large companies, the only method is self-hosting.

Self-hosting is not merely setting up websites, but setting up a series of private web services.

Owning your own server and running the network services you want on it, accessing them anytime and anywhere, means the data is completely in your hands and will not be controlled by any enterprise.

If you still need to use commercial cloud drives, just treat them as cold storage backup locations! Encrypt and lock files before throwing them up there.

For the hardware system part, self-hosted services usually run on Linux systems, which are open source, free of charge, and user-autonomous free systems.

As for the web services to run, the internet has many alternatives for equivalent commercial services, many of which are open source software. Users can easily find self-hosted alternatives and run them on their own servers. If problems arise, as long as one is familiar with using online forums, one can quickly obtain answers, and even help contribute features.

Real Open Source or Fake Open Source? Things to Watch Before Using Android and Linux Open Source Software

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 22:30:00 +0800

Android phone manufacturers that refuse to release kernel source code should be boycotted. This is a desecration of Linux free software licenses.

Those that do not allow bootloader unlocking should also be resisted, as they infringe user freedom. Void the warranty? That does not matter. But giving no unlock tool at all is another matter. If the manufacturer treats flashing ROMs as destructive behavior, and unlocking makes it impossible to restore original functions (such as Samsung Knox blowing a fuse), then that is even more despicable.

At present, only Google does this best, followed by Xiaomi, OnePlus, and companies such as Fairphone. Yes, we do not like Google’s monopolistic posture, but because Pixel is its own device, the related compilation documentation is clearer and more understandable than that of other vendors. Xiaomi’s phones have the advantage of low prices, and compared with low-price competitor Realme, they have more flashing possibilities.

From my own experience, I bought a Sony Xperia 5 II. Surprisingly, Sony actually does release source code regularly. Although it took the online community two years before someone made a LineageOS ROM and got it mainlined, Sony is still releasing source code despite its market share constantly falling, which deserves respect. For Xperia 1 series and later devices, the functions lost after unlocking are not as many as in the past. There is no need to back up the TA partition or anything; as long as you lock it again, those functions immediately come back.

Android phones inevitably contain proprietary firmware, but this is a negotiable part. At minimum, manufacturers must release kernel source code. For proprietary firmware, someone in the online community will always find a way to extract it from the official ROM. This at least allows developers to compile usable third-party ROMs, possibly even replace original vendor software with free software, and avoid being limited by the vendor’s support period.

Some companies responsibly write that their products use open source software and include the original license terms, which is good. For example, a TP-Link router I bought before included a paper BSD license. But one must not be misled by this kind of behavior. The software includes open source components? Is the code of the entire software open source? Or are only the GPL parts forced open source?

Some companies say they support open source, but what they really mean is that they only provide a binary to the outside world, and the so-called published “source code” is merely the open source components used, not the source code of the core components. For example, AidLinux. I strongly suspect it is basically a Termux shell, and the source code published on Github is merely sample code, with none of the application body’s code at all. They do not respond to questioning, only emphasizing that they are a one-stop solution.

Actually, they are not lying either. They never said they were open source software. But this is exactly where some companies are cunning. They think they can attract users of open source tools without needing to publish source code, using a performative Github repository to fool users. Now even RHEL can technically bypass the GPL through charging money. We do not know what other tricks commercial companies will use to abuse open source software in the future.

Is Android the Best Linux Distro? A Linux Desktop Rant

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Sat, 24 Jun 2023 11:00:00 +0800

This is a rant. A writing style that occasionally appears in the Linux Reddit community.

The systems I currently use are Arch Linux and Ubuntu 22.04.

Sometimes I feel that if I want to play with a computer and do some non-development tasks, using a Linux desktop system is torturing myself.

First, listen to a song.

1. The Case of Android and ChromeOS
#

When I am bored, I go look at the Android official website homepage. It says, “Android, a platform constantly challenging every possibility.” This sentence is indeed correct.

If Android and ChromeOS are counted as Linux systems in a broad sense, then they truly are the best graphical-interface Linux distributions.

The hot take that “Android is the best graphical-interface Linux distribution” was originally a clever answer I saw on Zhihu. If we think more broadly, it seems to be true.

Although it is very frustrating, I really have to say that after playing with many Linux distributions, I feel that, as free software, Android’s graphical interface is more general-purpose than ordinary desktop Linux distributions. It is unmatched in touch control, and connecting a keyboard to a tablet is also acceptable. Google then uses ChromeOS to strengthen Android’s weaknesses on computers, making it into a system usable on the desktop.

The Android experience I am talking about now mainly refers to the stock system, supported by Google or third-party ROM developers, so there is no fragmentation or abandonment problem.

In my humble opinion, Android’s style has already been finalized by Google and adapts to the resolutions of different devices. Although the Material You design language takes some getting used to at first, it is a good choice that can adapt to all kinds of screen sizes.

And after Android 12, it no longer has that geeky interface feeling of Android 5 to Android 11… Google has indeed developed its own set of aesthetics.

As Linux, Android uses APK to unify the installation package format. Ordinary users can easily get started, turning phones into something modern people become addicted to.

Android can also run advanced development tools. For example, running Termux on Android gives access to desktop software; running Crostini on ChromeOS gives a Linux container. Development environments like these are built on Linux’s powerful adaptability.

Thus, Android and ChromeOS have become highly scalable systems that are simple and easy to use in daily life, while also having tool support when advanced functions are needed.

Removing Root from Android may be understandable. After all, not everyone should casually touch system files. And Google not completely blocking the path of flashing ROMs is probably one reason developers like modifying Android devices. Although Android as free software is a sugar-coated poison, and Google understands very well how to bypass the GPL and stuff proprietary software into the system, Android without GMS is painful. But Android still preserves open source characteristics, so I prefer Android over the arbitrariness of iOS.