62
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2026
62 points (86.0% liked)
Linux
67512 readers
245 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
Being Open Source doesn't solve the issue here. First, as you say yourself, you even do not trust a project that is Open Source because of Ai slop. And you cannot verify every line of code with every update on every application. Do you understand every security issue by just looking at it? Even if you would, which is impossible, do you build everything from source? No normal people does that (sorry Gentoo users, this sentence was just for you guys :D).
Omarchy is a good example of that we should not trust everything, just because it is Open Source. I personally would have moral problems AND fear of incompetence and intentional malware. The actual software, the operating system itself, would have been very nice if there were not these trust issues.
I would say its not the same as liking pop culture. That comparison doesn't hold up, because listening to music does not execute stuff on your system, you do not depend on it, and there is no trust issue here involved. As for the moral problem of liking something, where the creator is a bad person, well that is something you can do in art. I personally can differentiate from media consumption and its creator, which is not possible with operating systems and software.
But if we start talking about media or even food, that is all a different thing and would just distract us from our original topic.
The reason I brought up the comparison is because I think it at least tangentially relates to ethical software usage as well.
I came to a similar conclusion from another comment: nazis are not wholesome people, so they cannot produce wholesome code (I guess music doesn't need wholesomeness to hit deep). This is my practical stance on the matter. Nazis have not produced a good enough operating system for me to switch to it.
But going back to nitpick, I don't have a blink of understanding about machine languages (or coding in general for that), but I do have trust in the community, and the community has freaks that speak machine language and can inform me about any hidden malware. But I guess by now I'm just advocating for the devil. Thanks for engaging, it did provide extra gradients in my view.
I also have to trust the community in order to trust the system. But no community can help you, if the maintainers doesn't do their job well, after you got pawned. There are lot of Open Source projects and operating systems I do not trust.
And yes I also get what you were saying with the media comparison, I did not try to invalidate your personal opinion by claiming the comparison wasn't valid. I understand you were trying to make a point by that. I just didn't want to go too far away from the topic, as this happens too often. So my apologies for the tone it may had (not sure how to put this into words). Also thanks for staying productive in the discussions, with political stuff involved this gets heated up very quickly.
Right back at ya. But for what it's worth, I didn't feel any animosity coming from you, and most of the answers have been pretty tame compared to the weight of the topic.
I do understand now why I shouldn't trust my data to a bad-faith player. I know where my misunderstanding stems from and appreciate all the input I got from this community. Another big thanks for keeping things on track (re:music).