It’s kind of ironic to me that Linux is all for free and open source, but still uses a proprietary platform, and a horrible one at that. Before the fediverse, I’d understand, but now, there is no excuse whatsoever.
I understand that we can’t just get up and leave everything proprietary behind all at once, since we have iPhones and Android phones. We all use proprietary software of some form, but I am of the mindset of using the least amount of proprietary possible.
I will ALWAYS look for FOSS first. I also want to make it as hard as possible for any corporation to track me. They’ll probably still be able to track me, but I’m not going without a fight.
I could say the same about the Linux kernel using GitHub, but I understand how massive of an undertaking it would be to move the whole kernel to another platform. I’m sure there are other factors, too. Anyway, I just wanted to start a discussion and hear people’s thoughts.
Thank you
because lemmy is bad
How so?
A few things,
- I often find the federation to just drop posts or comments,
- sometimes a post has been banned and doesn’t even report being banned on other servers,
- federation itself can be rather slow in many cases, and specific servers are even slower, you replied to this 10hrs ago according to lemmy, but I only got a notification 5 minutes ago despite using it off and on throughout the day.
- you can have the exact same community name but on a multitude of different servers which can become complicated.
- there is no button I can click to open the post on my server, which means if someone sends me a link and I want to engage with it, it’s a massive hassle to do so.
there are other issues I have but these are the ones off the top of my head. It’s simply a far inferior experience to reddit.
Understandable. I personally don’t really care that much to make a list about the flaws of a social media site (no judgement of course). I just coast along for a little bit and go back to reading my books.
It could be worse. At least they didn’t move to discord or facebook.
Discord is ok, it hosts many open source projects and can be bridged to matrix https://gitdab.com/cadence/out-of-your-element
Are you aware of any project that maintains a good bridge to Matrix? Because I’m in like 80 discord servers and not one of them has a high quality bridge
You can’t find anything on discord with a web search. You can’t even open it without logging in. Once you’re logged in, good luck finding an answer to a problem that was posted a year or two ago. That’s much worse than reddit.
I came here to say at least it’s not discord then I saw your comment. Yes, there s mattermost, matrix, IRC, … I am not installing Discord, I am not opening an account. I mean what s next? host your community in Skype?
Linux isnt only for Foss enjoyers. Plus its good to have the linux community on reddit to help people bring attention to linux. If they move it here it will be even harder to join the community.
You are not wrong. But there are things you can do to make a point. Make Reddit as a 2nd class citizen and drive people to lemmy, mastodon and the others. Like add posts with no comments, just relay bot, … Make it clear.
Same with GitHub, it’s mirror to my Gitea instance. You can see stuff but you have to move somewhere else to contribute and report issues. Not a terrible thing to use these proprietary services and yet make them 2nd class citizens.
It helps keep the more caustic linuxers away from lemmy.
The call is coming from inside the house
Correct we only want the sour linuxers here.
My experience has been the opposite. People are nicer here.
You are right, it’s not very often I see fights here.
Regarding migration to Lemmy, I think it will happen originally and in a few years the majority of questions will be asked here.
- Not everyone that uses Linux is against proprietary software or only uses FOSS.
- There are people that just heard of Linux, are just trying it out, or have an issue, and already use Reddit, or is what the search engine points them to go for help, or to ask questions.
- Reddit has a lot more reach for the common people than any other platform at the moment, there are still people that prefer to ask on Reddit, than go to a specific forum or another platform to ask (If I remember right, it still happens with some apps like Jellyfin that moved out of Reddit, but people still ask there)
These are just a few of the reasons that come to my mind.
As an example I’m on Linux for a decade now but I also use proprietary services. I use Jellyfin and Netflix, Vim and Jetbrains IDEs, Chess.com instead of Lichess, WhatsApp instead of Matrix.
Sometimes the value proposition does it for me, sometimes it’s the network effect. I’ve ditched reddit because I like Lemmy more but I can see how someone wants to stay in touch with their niche communities that don’t really exist on Lemmy. Probably some people use both.
How comes that Vim is proprietary? Jetbrain offers community versions which are afaik open source too, so you can look at the source code, you do not need to pay or agree to an EULA.
Also institutional inertia is difficult to overcome in general.
This is so weird to me. Maybe it’s about who you are, or who you run with, but when I saw that Discord was about to go that way, I messaged my Pathfinder group and every single person there immediately hit me back with, “so where to next?”
That’s what, five people?
It’s a lot different when it’s thousands and thousands
That’s why I said it might have something to do with who you’re around.
How should we know? Ask them, not us.
But Lemmy users are obviously smarter, so it’s better to ask them.
Think of it as an advertisement or a road sign. You want your message to reach as many people as possible.
Normies don’t usually find their way to Linux on their own. Hell, most don’t even know a third and fourth option (BSD) exists. By being on as many platforms as possible, more will find their way.
For what it’s worth, GitHub is NOT the place where kernel development takes place, that is just a mirror. Have a look here to see where development happens.
Third option? Solus? Minix? What is the third option!!???! Why don’t I know about the mysterious third option?!!!?
Linux is the third option. As far as many normies are concerned the second option is macOS
Damn, that just goes to show how indoctrinated I am. Didn’t even occur to me that there’s two mainstream OSs outside of Linux out there.
The kernel on GitHub is just a mirror - the primary source is on kernel.org
Torvalds wrote git for the Linux kernel, and then GitHub popped up because most other projects couldn’t handle the decentralization. Interestingly to OP’s frustration, they were using a proprietary VCS before that, and people were just as frustrated about that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git#History
Yeah… would have taken OP 10 seconds to check that. Dumb.
Because Lemmy is quite silent relatively. It’s a hard sell outside of those who enjoy selfhosting.
There’s two reasons why r/linux is popular on Reddit:
- Reddit is popular
- r/linux is popular
If no one discussed the value of software freedom on proprietary platforms then (hopefully) we’d be preaching to the choir here.
Linux has proprietary binary blobs in it. If any part of a software is proprietary then even if most of it is free then why do people not call “Linux” proprietary? Libre Linux removes those blobs.
Linux is a great platform for developing things like bots in.
Reddit is 90% bots.
Makes sense to me. 🤣
Because it’s fine the way it is. They can ask newbie questions over there, while we try to have more interesting discussions over here.
Ok but is that happening in reality
I meant that as a humorous wish. Apparently it didn’t work.
Reddit is unified, Lemmy has a small layer of complexity on top and “sh.itjust.works” is a weird name, maybe the Lemmy system drives to such complicated names. Its not a big deal but I add that to the other causes.
Additionally, Lemmy would be a hostile place if you happened to be a conservative-leaning Linux user. I know quite a few, but they aren’t on Reddit either.
They’re on youtube complaining how people should be understanding to everyone’s opinion when their opinions are hate, racism, and violence against minorities.
They never speak up when the little guy is being oppressed though, just when they feel their right wing audience feels attacked.
Linux people are afraid of a little added layer of complexity? Please
Look at corporate members at https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/members
There is a difference between Linux, the kernel, as a tool and free software the ideology. A lot of contributors to Linux are there for the money. They contribute resources, including money but also usually staff, without caring for abstract concepts like “freedom”, or they might even actively (arguably) work against it when they are strategically establishing walled gardens and exclusive stores.
So… I’m not saying that’s OK but I believe by confusing the ideology with the tool used for profit by gigantic corporations we are being unrealistic.
I’m having trouble following, you’re suggesting that the Linux subreddit continues to exist because of some corporate conspiracy to keep users on commercial media platforms?
I’m not sure where you get the “corporate conspiracy” part. Is anybody in 2025 still not understanding that platforms do everything they can for their users to consume any content available there constantly in order to sell more advertising because that’s one of the most profitable business model? Isn’t that public knowledge? If it’s not public knowledge are you implying it is “secret” despite those very corporations precisely publicly (at least during shareholders meetings) claiming that their strategy is simultaneously user base growth AND user engagement? If so wouldn’t that be more ignorance that conspiracy?
Anyway, that’s not even my point, rather I was trying to say that it seems OP is interested in Linux for the ethical aspect whereas the corporations listed there are, by definition and by their legal mandate of being for-profit companies, participating in order to improve their bottom line.
Please let me know if I misunderstood your point and/or if I’m still unclear.
op asked about the r/linux community which was not mentioned in either of your comments
