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  • Wolf480plwolf480pl@mstdn.io
    Jan 5, 2024, 12:15 AM

    I've said this before but

    Software freedom is not when the source code for the program you use is somewhere on github, has 5000 dependencies and doesn't build outside of CI

    Software freedom is when you have the source on your computer, modify it, build it, and run a modified version

    How much of the software you use on a daily basis would you be able to build from source? How many urls does that require fetching, and how many of these can stop working any time without prior notice?
    1/

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  • Wolf480plwolf480pl@mstdn.io
    Jan 5, 2024, 12:18 AM

    I remember my dad's RedHat came on 4 CDs: 2 Binary Discs, one Source Disc and one Documentation Disc.

    If it worked the way I think, you could take it to a desert island and rebuild everything from source, with just those 4 CDs and an x86 computer.

    Today a Debian mirror has 100+ GB of source packages and 600+ GB of binaries just for amd64.

    But at least it's one place, heavily replicated. And IIRC it's supposed to work on a desert island.

    2/

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  • Wolf480plwolf480pl@mstdn.io
    Jan 5, 2024, 12:27 AM

    But also, it's very accessible:
    apt-get source -> apt-get builddeps -> make changes -> dpkg-buildpackage -> dpkg -i your-freshly-built.deb

    I'm sure many other distros provide a similar solution. Some default to downloading sources as part of building the package, but AFAIK most still require that the actual build doesn't rely on internet.

    Can you say the same about your average docker image? Flatpak? Android app? Rust crate? Golang module?

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  • Wolf480plwolf480pl@mstdn.io
    Jan 5, 2024, 12:32 AM

    Most of these things can be packaged by distros up to the desert island standards, albeit with great effort.

    So it can be done.

    It's just that people who write that software, and the tooling, rarely care. Which makes things harder for everyone else. Harder than it could be.

    t. spent 8h on something that should've been 2 commands

    4/4

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