
Returning to Free Software: A Guide - uggedal
http://words.steveklabnik.com/returning-to-free-software-a-guide
======
xiaomai
I hope we see a lot more of this soon. It's disappointing to see so many
hackers using proprietary OSes/editors/etc. to build systems based on free
software.

~~~
Sven7
via Tim Wu's Master Switch - open vs closed = freedom vs convenience

It's a trade-off. One is not better than the other.

~~~
nawitus
Eh, that's a false trade-off. I'm more productive on a free OS, which I can
customize to my needs (since I can choose a the best window manager for me
from tens of good alternatives and so on).

~~~
Sven7
It takes time and effort to make a good choice "from tens of good
alternatives". Its great to have that freedom, but to many, spending that time
and effort is an inconvenience. That is the trade off.

~~~
airtonix
a stitch in time saves nine.

------
anon1385
I hope the author appreciates the irony of hosting this blog with svbtle…

~~~
giulivo
yes, not only that but I'm getting bored by people pretending they're doing
anything good just because they've (finally) realized that using non-free
software suffers from collaterals

I'm bored by people pretending they've gone free just because they managed to
replace OSX with some exotic gnu/linux distro (and with exotic I mean whatever
which isn't mainstream)

And I'm bored by people upvothing posts like this

And I know someone will tell is me who is wrong (and boring) but listen, that
is just your opinion, as this is mine. One thing isn't opinionable though,
svbtle isn't free, so this post really isn't a good one, for me

And if your story is about "how you reinstalled some random gnu/linux", well
that is a 20 years old story; what is an hacker (news reader) interested in?
the .Xmodmap settings?

The fight for freedom today seems to me to have been moved for the great part
somewhere else, on the webapps. How about we "return to freedom" by debating
on how we get rid of all these non-free web applications?

~~~
bnegreve
> _I 'm bored by people pretending they've gone free just because they managed
> to replace OSX with some exotic gnu/linux distro_

Isn't it better than just doing nothing? What are you planning to do to _do
any good_? What do you think the average non-tech guy should do?

~~~
giulivo
sure it is better than doing nothing, except in my perception HN isn't a place
for average non-tech guys so I get bored by this kind of posts

About me, I'm planning (and practicing) not to release any non-free code and
also looking for alternatives to a few web apps which I'm still unable to
replace (as per first post). That would be a much nicer topic to discuss for
me.

Installing gnu/linux, no really. Again that is 20years old story.

~~~
tripzilch
> sure it is better than doing nothing, except in my perception HN isn't a
> place for average non-tech guys so I get bored by this kind of posts

I agree. There's a lot of avoidance of criticism for fear of "negativity" on
HN. Not only does this hurt the (very positive) _constructive_ criticism by
regression-to-the-mean, it also causes us to lower our collective bar, from a
"collection of smart people" into something more average.

The only non-free software I can't find a replacement for is a good sound/wave
editor, something with an intuitive interface. Audacity's navigation controls
are just terrible.

------
archivator
I'm surprised no one has mentioned that using software full disk encryption on
an SSD is a really bad idea. It increases wear dramatically, completely
invalidates TRIM and works against the controller every step of the way. LVM
has an option that supposedly passes TRIM through but in my case I'm pretty
sure it didn't do anything.

~~~
gasull
Can you explain more about this?

Even if my disk wore off faster, I'd still use full-disk encryption. What if
laptop is lost or stolen with financial info in it?

~~~
archivator
Right. The thing is, when you wear out an SSD, you get these enormous
(multiple seconds) pauses that, if you're doing anything I/O bound slow you
down to a crawl. Even opening a heavy web page can trigger them. Buy a fast
HDD if you want consistent long term behaviour with FDE.

The reason FDE breaks SSDs is that the implementation in LVM works at the
block level. To send TRIM, the filesystem says "this block is empty, tell the
controller" but depending on a thousand things, among which are cipher mode,
cipher block size and other minutiae, LVM will invalidate the TRIM command.
Without TRIM, SSDs deteriorate rather quickly.

Personally, I understand why FDE is needed but I'm of the opinion that
selective encryption (with possible plausible deniability measures) is a much
neater, if more difficult, approach.

~~~
Spittie
You should enable encryption at the controller level, many modern SSD support
it and it shouldn't influence the performance.

~~~
archivator
Indeed! Which is why I said "software full disk encryption" in my OP. :)

------
D9u
I'm running FreeBSD on a 4 + year old netbook for close to a year now, and
before that it was various unix-like OS choices, from Xubuntu, to Kuki, to
Tiny Core, to Fedora, along with too many others to list as I sought an OS to
suit my needs.

I wiped WinXP (eXPloitable) off my hdd years ago, and haven't looked back ever
since.

My only caveat is Netflix, but this is easily fixed by booting into a
persistent Debian USB flash drive installation and running compholio's
netflix-desktop.

As for those who complain about having to configure their unix-like systems,
you can't really claim to be much of a "hacker" if configuring your own system
is a task too onerous.

After all, if a moron such as myself can do it, genius such as yours should
have absolutely no problem using unix-like systems.

~~~
bloodorange
_After all, if a moron such as myself can do it, genius such as yours should
have absolutely no problem using unix-like systems._

Saying things like this hurts the quality of your post and may not be HN-
worthy. The rest of your post was good enough to make your point.

(edit: formatting)

------
reledi
> _One thing that I have yet to explore (but I’d like to) is to use a tool
> like Chef to set up my personal machine, so that I can periodically wipe
> everything and re-build from scratch._

I'm in the same boat. Does anyone know a good tutorial to learn how to do this
with Chef or Puppet? I don't have much of an interested in learning the tools,
I just want to set it up and forget it (and occasionally update it).

Do people make their Chef/Puppet configuration files public (e.g. on GitHub)
just like they do with their dotfiles?

~~~
phaer
Not chef or puppet, but Eivind Uggedal published the saltstack states for his
personal archlinux machines:
[https://github.com/uggedal/states](https://github.com/uggedal/states)

I plan to do the same for my debian setups, but i am not there yet.

------
millerm
What does the NSA/privacy issue have to do with your switch? I'm curious to
know how using free software could possibly protect you from the current NSA
issues that have been brought to light. You are still using the public
Internet (services such as email, web/http etcetera), which has nothing to do
with free software. You are using telephony (well, perhaps you don't have a
phone) systems provided by private companies which provide the info to the
NSA. Security is still a two way street in every case. Sure, everything I use
might be 'secure' but how do you know that every one you collaborate with is
just as 'secure' as you? Once you send data to anyone, it's out of your hands.

I'm just asking questions. I respect the switch. I've tried several times, but
I still like OS X too much to dump it. I know freedom can come at a price,
such as having a lessened user experience (in some cases). I really don't
feel, and have not been shown, that Apple has been reading all my data and
sending it to third parties. So, on the security aspect, I've no reason to get
rid of the OS that I work on and that contributes heavily to my income. Now, I
use an awful lot of free software but I just can't give up OS X at this time.

~~~
steveklabnik
As I said in the post, I made the decision to switch beforehand. One of the
issues that made me finally do it was mysterious load spikes that would happen
on my machine, and I couldn't figure out what was up. Like, "Why are my fans
running? Top says my load is at 2, but no process is using more than 2% CPU."

With software that is Free, I can be pretty damn sure that there isn't
something that's sending something somewhere behind my back.

That said, it would not help _directly_ with the NSA situation. They're
related because everyone was asking me to write this post up, because they
care a lot more about privacy and information freedom in light of recent
events. Taking control of my own computer is just one step, it's not
'foolproof' or 'secure' by any means.

If anything, the NSA situation just confirmed what I already knew: the
executive branch doesn't give a care in the world as to the intent of the law,
only the letter. As someone who has... generally unacceptable political views,
and expresses them in front of a reasonably large audience on a regular basis,
I constantly wonder about things like some of the other stories on the front
page.

------
crocowhile
I have been using archlinux exclusively since 2006. I would be lost and
furious without a central repository for all the updates, compiz goodies, and
the free-of-malware/viruses peace of mind that only linux gives me.

What is this "Chez" that OP is writing about?

~~~
vysakh0
OP was talking about "Chef" a server configuration tool
[http://www.opscode.com/chef/](http://www.opscode.com/chef/)

------
glogla
I'm not sure the X1 Carbon is such a great idea. I heard that Lenovo laptops
are way cheaper in US than in Europe, but here, getting MBA instead would give
you cheaper computer with better screen, and way better touchpad, while going
for rMBP 13 would give you computer with better performance, more memory, way
better screen and way better touchpad, while still being cheaper than the X1.

Now more expensive than Apple product, while worse ... that requires actual
effort!

I'm planning to do just the same with Linux, though I'm waiting for Haswell
Zenbook.

EDIT: I hope I recall correctly on X1 having TN screen.

~~~
justincormack
If you want to run Linux, Macbooks are not that great, as it takes ages to get
support for each generation. You could buy a second hand or refurb one
perhaps. I bought an old cheap discontinued model Lenovo (X201i) a few years
back and put an SSD in. It could use more memory, although you tend to use VMs
less on Linux than on OSX as you can run code natively. Should be good for a
few more years.

------
cathyjf
The author mentions installing Ghostery, which appears to be nonfree.

~~~
levosmetalo
It is free, unless you have some politically overloaded definition of free.

~~~
LeonidasXIV
I think the definition here was Free Software, which considering it doesn't
seem to have a public repository with the source code, means that it is
nonfree.

~~~
Flimm
Just in case that's not clear, when people capitalise "Free Software", they're
generally referring to the definition used by the Free Software Foundation.

------
mark_l_watson
For me, it is a matter of moving in the right direction. I can't run on all
free software. For example, I had to dig my old Windows laptop out of my junk
closet today to do a homework assignment (without warning, the last assignment
for the Cousera Data Science class requires Windows :-( )

Also, I prefer Android (not free software, but at least more open) but the are
a few apps on my iPad I really like so I am not giving away my iPad anytime
soon.

~~~
mwcampbell
For the assignment that required Windows, did you try using WINE? If so, how
did that work out? Just curious.

~~~
mark_l_watson
I installed the app on Windows, but it was a real nuisance. I was annoyed :-(

------
catmanjan
GNU/Linux really isn't an option for laptops until the battery life improves.
Yes, yes I know PowerTOP helps, but 3 hours under even the most minimal distro
vs. 8 hours under Windows is unacceptable.

(Note: I know it's the hardware manufacturers fault for not releasing power
related drivers, but as if the end user cares!)

~~~
mrpdaemon
It does take some tinkering to get things setup right, but on my Asus Zenbook
UX32VD I do get ~5 hours of battery life for simple usage, which is the same
as the advertised battery life with Windows. This is running Ubuntu 13.04 with
the latest linux kernel (3.9.6 atm), laptop-mode, bbswitch to turn off the
discrete graphics card, power saving mode on for the wifi card etc.

IMO its paramount to be running recent kernels, both for good battery life as
well as compatibility with the latest hardware.

~~~
eikenberry
Agreed. With just a bit of tweaking I have my x220 using around 8 watts with
average use, getting 10+ hours. Windows only gets around 8 hours on the same
system.

This looks like a post from years ago. I'm suspicious that this guy is just a
windows apologist looking to spread FUD.

~~~
catmanjan
I have an IBM x60, x61 tablet and several recent Asus lappys, all had terrible
battery life out of the box under several different distros. After fiddling
they all had _better_ life but nowhere near what I got under xp 7 or 8.

It's great if the HN community can config their OSes to get every watt out of
it, but the truth is the lay man doesn't know, doesn't care and doesn't want
to know how to do that...

~~~
tripzilch
> It's great if the HN community can config their OSes to get every watt out
> of it, but the truth is the lay man doesn't know, doesn't care and doesn't
> want to know how to do that...

How is this even relevant? We _are_ the HN community, right? Where are these
lay men? I don't think the OP as targeted at lay men.

I'm starting to think all this talk of "the end user doesn't care" or "the lay
man doesn't want to know" are all just euphemisms for "I want it to be easier
for _me_ ".

Which is fine, but then just admit it, instead of hiding behind a hypothetical
end-user.

------
tammer
My current stance is that I'm fine with using any device not internally linked
to an online identity. I.e., not associating my user account with an apple ID.

I still think of OS X as an open platform since I can use entirely free
software alongside Apple's amazing apps. I also still trust that the Mac's
limited market share makes known backdoors less valuable to the powers that
be, and more dangerous to Apple's reputation if discovered by anyone else.

Using iOS, on the other hand, necessarily waives the right to privately
install software. That's one I won't give up.

~~~
catmanjan
Can you please list the free software you use on OS X?

~~~
tammer
vim, tmux, zsh, mutt (ppl & ldap for addressing), vimperator, qemu, pass,
homebrew, seahorse, general programming languages, general unix utils, pandoc
(& LaTeX), ffmpeg, kdenlive, lots of associated plugins and helper scripts,
keyremap4macbook, tarsnap, rtorrent, nginx, plex. Probably much more in the
future (homebrew's repo is huge); I'm just recently making the switch from
Arch.

I'll need a better free & open cloud sync solution, but I was using Dropbox on
Linux anyway.

------
pjmlp
Unless there is a guarantee where the network traffic is going through, this
is worthless even with encryption.

Secret service agencies have the ability to pose as whatever they want, even
using "legit" certificates.

~~~
LeonidasXIV
> Secret service agencies have the ability to pose as whatever they want, even
> using "legit" certificates.

That's why I greatly prefer the WoT model to the CA model and refuse to use
S/MIME in favor of OpenPGP.

That said, you _could_ write down the checksums of the certificates you trust.
Effectively you do trust checking by hand then.

~~~
pjmlp
How would you ever prevent whoever gets the information to pass it to secret
services agency?

That is why as European I find the whole PRISM discussion overblown as if
people weren't aware secret service agencies have been doing this for years
all over the world.

~~~
LeonidasXIV
> How would you ever prevent whoever gets the information to pass it to secret
> services agency?

I think it is about third parties. If I can't trust the person I am
communicating to, why would I want to tell this person any secrets?

> That is why as European I find the whole PRISM discussion overblown as if
> people weren't aware secret service agencies have been doing this for years
> all over the world.

I agree completely.

------
lettergram
No matter how much "free" software you will still be tracked. The government
has access to all the data you use on their internet via service providers as
well as the internet hubs.

Besides the government the data that the companies collect is used to improve
their software, so is that really bad? I agree I do not like being snooped on,
but the government is the only body I really have any interest in because it
is in the constitution not to snoop on me without cause, the company (usually)
doesn't provide such assurances/promises.

------
bugsbunny4341
I primarily use gnu/linux and I'm planning to upgrade my laptop. Any
recommendation? rMBP, Zenbook, Carbon X1...? Long battery life and performance
are the primary criteria.

~~~
bdimcheff
I have a lenovo x230 that works great for me... It's not as high-res as an X1,
but it is super easy to swap in 16G of ram and an SSD. I think the X1's ram is
soldered. I also have an extra battery that snaps onto the bottom which will
give me ~10-12hrs of total battery life when I'm going about my usual
business.

------
gits1225
_I still have improvements to make, but what I have works well so far. Please
let me know what you think, and suggest ways to make this setup even better._

A crunchbanger for 2+ years, recent convert to elementary:
[http://elementaryos.org](http://elementaryos.org) , especially if you are
looking for 'polish'. Do check it out once its out.

~~~
girvo
Well, I <3 eOS, and I am developing for it, and chat to the devs on the daily
(#elementary-dev on Freenode). Great guys, great OS.

Thing is, it _does_ take away a lot of the "choice". It's very Mac influenced,
and has a "convention over configuration" and "opinionated" view on how things
should work.

This is not a bad thing, if it fits you (like it does for me!). However, a lot
of hackers on here won't be keen, considering their opinions on Unity anyway
;)

Do give it a spin in a VM and see what you think, however!

Personally, I have a Samsung Series-5 ultrabook 13", running Ubuntu 13.04 -
it's brilliant. I've used Linux as my daily on my laptops since 2005 :)

------
eksith
Lot of comments on what exactly constitutes free software (and the snarky
insinuation that somehow only the FSF can determine what exactly that means).

Let's let Richard explain it :

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPPikY3uLIQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPPikY3uLIQ)

~~~
mwcampbell
I wonder if we can get that video in a format that doesn't require Flash
Player.

~~~
eksith
1) In Firefox get the "DownloadHelper" helper plugin.

2) Visit the page (hopefully you still don't have Flash plugin in the first
place or have completely extricated it from your system)

3) DownloadHelper icon will start animating. From the dropdown select your
resolution and download.

4) The video format you have downloaded is patented and must be erased
quickly. Therefore, download Handbrake (
[http://handbrake.fr](http://handbrake.fr) ) which is open source and convert
it to a free format.

5) Run a disk eraser program to ensure that the deleted offending technologies
are in fact deleted off your hard drive.

------
geekymartian
Coming from OSX, how do you handle the cmd + * to ctrl + * switch? After years
of cmd key combinations I always find hard to switch to ctrl key combinations.
The app switching with alt instead of cmd kills me too.

~~~
tammer
Remapping is very easy. Many resources recommend the xmodmap command, but I've
had much more success on recent distros by setting xkbmap options in the Xorg
config.

A big list of possible rules are located at /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst

Changing alt+tab to ctrl+tab is easy with most window managers.

(I find the alt/command physical key much more ergonomic than the physical
control key.)

