Why was the US funding FOSS projects? That strikes me as weird, inappropriate and suspicious.

A mixture of the elements within the US that actually believed the stuff about personal rights and democracy still existing behind the more sinister realities, as well as it being in the same pot of funded projects like Radio Free Asia, Radio Liberty and the likes, which always were a mix of just outright propaganda organs, but also providing the scaffolding of free media access for some regions in the past.

So, it’s complicated, ultimately rooted in a mix of the cynical US wanting to support dissidents in other countries, and the idealist US also having people actually believing in personal freedom and privacy, even within their government/state structures.

Also, just in general, a lot of FOSS projects get funding from governments, US or otherwise. If I remember correctly ReactOS got a lot of funding from Russia, for example, because they saw a potential way to get away from Microsoft in it.

From what I gather, there was no open influence wielded over those projects, I at least don’t remember the OTF forcing a backdoor onto Tor Browser for the CIA or something like that - thankfully the open source structure makes that easier to control - but the weakness becomes apparent now, of course, because funds could now be withdrawn, as the government turned fascist.

Kind of, I wouldn’t really call them an international organisation in the way I would be imagining, see how easy it was to cut their funding when national interests turned openly fascist. Their affiliation with the US government above more independent, international organisations meant, that they would support privacy and a free and open internet, as long as it helps dissidents in other, non-aligned countries, but quick to cut it, if it reaches their own doorsteps.

Not the one you answered to, but I think I can understand the idea of US funding having been a toxic source of dependency, and it being better in the long run to get money elsewhere. That “elsewhere” is a good question, though.

Just me, personally, my dream would be an international fund, carried by the UN or maybe an independent NGO, that can get funding from both private and public funds, that prioritises free internet access the way the WHO prioritises health. But I think that’s still far off.

This is accurate, am consuming RISC V (news) for the emotional high, temporary bursts of irrational hope and am addicted.

Ah, good to know, I was just glossing over it and saw the CC0 in the info. I think for something like this, that shouldn’t be much of a problem (especially for the original use-case of a Plasma splash screen) - but of course it’s a bit risky, as soon as you get into more complex works, and them potentially being re-used after you publish them - where people that put it online orgininally, did so with more complex CC licenses, or no public licensing at all.

Just as a heads-up in general. I, personally, think it’s better to err on the side of being creative when sharing things - but the reality is, of course, that with a bit of bad luck, licensing stuff can get quite complicated down the road. (Highly doubtful for something like this, though)

Oooh, I like it a lot, I might end up using it in a game or smth, too 🤔

Thanks for sharing it with the world! It is really cool.

Oh, just to not accidentally create the wrong impression - that’s not me, I just shared the video and didn’t want to editorialise the title. If you want to give them your message (that I think is important, indeed) - you can follow the link and should be able to comment with many different activitypub account options (PeerTube itself, Mastodon, etc.) - sadly, I don’t think Lemmy is possible yet, because its design isn’t user-centric but content-centric, and it lacks some of those AP-capabilities.

Another classic:

Yeah, that one really isn’t Linux’s fault either, and both on Linux and Windows, it’s always “exciting” to see which dev used which wild, new scheme for their config/save files.

So, a few years back, when a good friend of mine tried out Linux mint, one of the main reasons he didn’t stick with it wasn’t even compatibility or anything (although he probably would have switched to a rolling release as someone who values cutting edge updates). But what ultimately made him return to Windows was something, I have been scratching my head on how to best handle it: The file system structure ultimately being too much of a change.

Now, of course, if you are used to it, I wouldn’t really call it better or worse - definitely more suited to what Linux ultimately is. But stuff like, “Where are the save games of my paradox games? Why is so much stuff in my user directory? Why is there no unified directoy for all the stuff I installed (including everything they use), like Program Files, but everything is scattered all around into different directories? Why was the path to my save games hidden in a dotfile-folder?” were examples of hurdles, where the current answer seems to be “you just have to get used to it”.

Now, I am not pleading to change the standard, there’s good reasons for it. But are there good transitioning guides from Windows to Linux, that do a good job at explaining the structure of the file system? Because I remember, myself, only really getting used to it months into my Linux journey all those years ago.

Ah, yeah, I keep being scatterbrained and impulsive when crossposting, and forgetting he sadly doesn’t even link direct links in the video description, instead of just to the website itself. Will add the link to the lemmy post bodies at least.

Yeah, his videos and articles are usually insightful - but his thumbnails are often weirdly bad. For example: for the one about “Does Mozilla get USAID taxpayer money?” (Actually, not really), he unfortunately used the headlines of the article he was criticising, making it seem his video would argue the same point as the (false) article did.