diff --git a/blog/linux-users-light-on-horizon.mdwn b/blog/linux-users-light-on-horizon.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 00000000..93baa9bf --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/linux-users-light-on-horizon.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,109 @@ +[[!meta title="Linux, UNIX and FOSS users: there is light on the horizon"]] + +Good morning reader. It is Easter Friday, 2018. Great timing for +writing a blog article in the mountains of Switzerland, next to the +fire. + +## TL;DR + +Read the whole thing. + +## Introduction + +I hope I got your attention and a warm gut feeling already. If you are +like me, using Linux (or "unix alike" for that matter) for about 20 +years, you have seen a lot of changes. + +Some of the changes I observe include: + +- Linux getting attention from a much broader audience (developers, users, corporates) +- Operating system choices have become less important ("people care about higher level stuff") +- The Free and Open Source movement has lost its traction +- Linux (stacks) ha(s|ve) become much more complex + +In this article, I want to point you, old greybeard, to some hope at +the end of the tunnel: Devuan + +## Devuan + +So let's start with a self centric, barefaced advertisement so that you don't +claim I wrote this article to subconsciously lead you to [[!devuanhosting]]: +Go to [[!devuanhosting]] and get yourself a Devuan VM, if you like Devuan. + +Now, back to the real topic of the post: You might see Devuan as a +"Debian of the retarted people who don't accept the existence of systemd". +Fair enough. + +However, you should look a bit more closer, even if your opinion is the former. +Devuan creates a choice. It gives you the choice to run Linux without systemd. + +Just for the sake of the argument before, ("people care about high level stuff"), +it is actually important that this is about an init system at the core of your +computer. Yes, it is low level. Yes, most people don't care and most people probably +shouldn't care, because they don't even understand why there is an +init system, nor why it can be programmed very simple (i.e. compare +with [[!cinit]]). + +What is important here is that a group of **volunteers** spending +their free time and resource commits themselves to fight for their +right to have a Linux without systemd. + +"Why is that important", you might ask. And the answer is very +similar: without these people, we would all still be using a DOS based +operating system with a broken GUI on top of it. + +Yes, exactly. If there weren't such volunteers (or even "lateral thinkers") +before, there would not GNU/Linux distribution for you at all. + +## The light at the horizon + +So why is there a light? Today I migrated my notebook from Arch Linux +to Devuan, because +[systemd crashes my system on suspend](https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/58001). + +First of all, I do have the choice to change, because of the great +work of the Devuan community. But what really opened my eyes, was a +few things that I had to "manually configure": + +Compared to Arch Linux, I needed to install **acpid** and **pm-utils** +to handle suspending. Furthermore I needed to configure acpid to +suspend on lid close as follows: + + root@line:/home/nico/Downloads# cat /etc/acpi/events/suspend + event=button/lid LID close + action=/usr/sbin/pm-suspend + +Yes, exactly. It takes 3 commands to install this property of your +system, it is a very clean separation of concerns and debugging this +setup is as easy as starting acpid in the foreground and showing the +events. + +While this, as well as the logical naming of devices (eth0, wlan0), +are just minor things, I see that something changed: + +There are again people, who fight for their right to do things "the +right way". + +## Call to action + +If you agree to what I read above and you also see the light at the +horizon, I would like to ask you to be active: + +It is not necessary to start developing code to support the Free and +Open Source Software movement, to support freedom. + +For us, it is necessary to be seen and move forward as a community, +maye it be Linux, BSD or FOSS in general. + +So instead of staying abstract like this, I ask you for 2 things: + +- Spread the word about this article on IRC, Twitter, or social medium + of your choice + +- Get yourself a good drink of your choice, sit down and say out + aloud: I am supporting freedom of choice and will fight for it. + +Thanks for reading, enjoy your time! + + +[[!tag foss unix]] diff --git a/shortcuts.mdwn b/shortcuts.mdwn index 17022b67..01fc0f1e 100644 --- a/shortcuts.mdwn +++ b/shortcuts.mdwn @@ -12,12 +12,14 @@ * [[!shortcut name=qemu desc="qemu" url="http://www.qemu.org"]] * [[!shortcut name=cdist desc="cdist" url="http://www.nico.schottelius.org/software/cdist/"]] * [[!shortcut name=cinv desc="cinv" url="http://www.nico.schottelius.org/software/cinv/"]] +* [[!shortcut name=cinv desc="cinit" url="https://www.nico.schottelius.org/software/cinit/"]] * [[!shortcut name=monit desc="monit" url="http://mmonit.com/monit/"]] * [[!shortcut name=uml desc="User-mode linux" url="http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/"]] * [[!shortcut name=kiss desc="Kiss principle" url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle"]] * [[!shortcut name=dhcp desc="DHCP" url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHCP"]] * [[!shortcut name=dns desc="DNS" url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS"]] * [[!shortcut name=git desc="git" url="http://git-scm.com/"]] +* [[!shortcut name=devuanhosting desc="Devuanhosting.com" url="https://devuanhosting.com"]] * [[!shortcut name=foss desc="FOSS" url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_Open_Source_Software"]] * [[!shortcut name=cdistexamples desc="cdist examples" url="https://github.com/ungleich/cdist-examples"]] * [[!shortcut name=unixphilosophy desc="UNIX philosophy" url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy"]]