this post was submitted on 20 Oct 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.
Resources
- 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.
- 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.
- Those on Apple Silicon Macs can consult Asahi Linux for available options.
Rules
- 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!
- 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.
- Avoid being confrontational: People are in different stages of liberating their computing, focus on informing rather than accusing. Debatebro nonsense is not tolerated.
- All site-wide rules still apply
Artwork
- Xenia was meant to be an alternative to Tux and was created (licensed under CC0) by Alan Mackey in 1996.
- Comm icon (of Xenia the Linux mascot) was originally created by @ioletsgo
- Comm banner is a close up of "Dorlotons Degooglisons" by David Revoy (CC-BY 4.0) for Framasoft
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I'm asking you now because you recently told me to read Free Software, Free Society by Stallman. You have Free Software, Free Society in the sidebar.
Linux Mint is based on Debian and very similar to Debian, except Mint strips the freedom principles from Debian. Mint doesn't respect Libre principles. Debian abides by the Debian Code of Conduct and Debian Free Software Guidelines which stipulates that software in the repository should respect the users of the software.
You can also install the Mint GUI in Debian by installing the "Cinnamon" package. The Debian developers have also criticized Linux Mint for mixing Ubuntu software packages with Debian packages, creating "Frankendebian". Mint just seems like Debian made worse.
Debian even fixed the non-free firmware issue in 2022, by moving drivers and firmware to a separate repository than other proprietary software. So you can limit your system to only free software and non-free drivers, if you choose.
I was (in jest) calling you the evangelist because you had made a post telling me to read Stallman. However, I think it is equally fair for you to call me a Stallman evangelist. If you want to call me a FSF/stallman evangelist, I am not bothered.
Tagline? It made me chuckle at least.
The problem with Debian for a lot of people is that it's too slow to update and the packages are old.
Debian is not slow to update. It intentionally uses a 2 year software freeze model to prevent new software features from introducing bugs or exploits. Software security updates are still pushed regularly. I think there is some sort of exception for Firefox. There is also an optional backports repository.
Linux Mint uses the same update model. Linux Mint has the same 2 year freeze release model as Debian. There's 2 versions of Linux Mint: Ubuntu LTS edition which is a 2 year release model and Debian Edition which is a 2-year release model. You can't say that Mint is better than Debian while criticizing Debian for a thing that Mint also does.
Linux Mint doesn't even manage a full software repository, it only has a partial repository which contains the Linux Mint (Cinnamon DE). If you install the Ubuntu LTS version of Linux mint, it sets your software repositories to Ubuntu LTS repositories and adds an additional Mint repository which only has the latest Cinnamon DE. If you install the Linux Mint Debian version, it does the same thing but with the Debian repositories.
Also Debian just release Debian 13, so all of the software in the repository is pretty fresh right now. Debian 13 was released in August 2025 and the software freeze is based on April 2025
If you want to have a rolling release distro, then you would have to use something that is ArchLinux based. Rolling release distros are prone to more bugs and exploits. For example, the xz-utils ssh backdoor mainly affected ArchLinux, which the exploit never made it past the testing versions of Debian and Fedora.
I'm not really bothered either, and it's not the first time someone has called me that (not in jest either).
I ultimately dont think this is the right conversation to have... At this point. I was more thinking of the freedom ladder of the FSF, the goal is to give people the tools to further liberate themselves, but we can't expect people to be near the top of the ladder from the get go or we'll never see them climb. I also never thought about free software when installing my first copy of Linux mint nearly 3 years ago, I just hated microsoft with a passion and now I'm here.
This is a Linux mint download button, and that's all it needs to be after the Windows 10 EOL that threatens to create millions of devices of e-waste. We need to meet people where they're at rather than where we want them to (eventually) be.
If you want to have political conversations about this further you can always DM me, but I don't think this is a fruitful conversation to have here when we want to grow in members.