this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2026
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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 Debian and design your dream system!
- Those on Apple Silicon Macs can consult Asahi Linux for available options.
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- 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.
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- 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
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The linux security model is outdated yes, nothing to do with package managers. I recommend using SElinux for finer management.
Software is how it is because people don't want software that follows the unix philosophy. They want bloated pieces of crap that do everything, they don't want to compose multiple tools or not have stuff try to guess what you mean to do. They want autoconfiguration and highly customised PCs.
You can set up your own system to be a lovely island of sanity and never install a browser or officer suite (I have walked this path and it's very relaxing) but 99.999999999% of people are vehmently against this and also completely disinterested in their system. So here we are.
Everything is a file means that every program needs a parser. Means that every program will at least depend on some parsing library.
That is not the unix philosophy lol that is a detail of the kernal
In 1978, Doug McIlroy documented a set of principles encapsulating the "characteristic style" that had emerged among Unix system users and developers
Make each program do one thing well. To do a new job, build afresh rather than complicate old programs by adding new "features".
Expect the output of every program to become the input to another, as yet unknown, program. Don't clutter output with extraneous information. Avoid stringently columnar or binary input formats. Don't insist on interactive input.
Design and build software, even operating systems, to be tried early, ideally within weeks. Don't hesitate to throw away the clumsy parts and rebuild them.
Use tools in preference to unskilled help to lighten a programming task, even if you have to detour to build the tools and expect to throw some of them out after you've finished using them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy
Parsers
Okay? not at all relevant to anything I've said?