Co-ops are often dismissed as attempts to create islands of socialism. But building democratically controlled tech infrastructure can be part of a wider movement for working-class power.
Co-ops are often dismissed as attempts to create islands of socialism. But building democratically controlled tech infrastructure can be part of a wider movement for working-class power.
Right now. Just grab some of your friends and sign onto contracts to buy and share things together.
Food coops are the most common. I imagine tools would also be pretty easy to jointly own.
That would require friends…
One of the universe’s cruelest jokes is that many of the people who truly could improve society have social anxiety and struggle to band together.
But we can fix that. As an anxious weirdo myself, I’m happy to be friends with the rest of you anxious weirdos. As long as we don’t meet in person until after we get to know each other well. But until then, introduce yourself here and tell me your favorite Linux distro. We’ll start a tech co-op.
I honestly haven’t used a computer in years. I had given up on windows and tried mac, only to confirm my suspicion that it was even worse. Long before that I had tried Ubuntu once but I didn’t give it much effort, and it was when Linux was still pretty rough around the edges. I was also not very tech savvy, so that didn’t help.
Anyway, lately I’ve been reading more about it. I finally understand how operating systems work and what the different components do. So I can actually understand conversations about Linux now.
I’ve read up on lots of different distros, and there are a few I’m excited to try. I don’t currently have a computer though, so that’s on hold for a bit.
So I’ll probably start with either Zorin or Endeavor. I hear they’re both beginner-friendly. But the more I read about Ubuntu and their proprietary blobs, the less interested I am in Zorin. So maybe I’ll try LMDE instead, cause I think something Debian-based will be a good starting point.
Then I’ll probably spin up a few different VM images to try some others. I’m pretty interested in Solus, Mageia, and OpenSUSE. I’ll also try a few different DEs to see which I like the best, and maybe I’ll try something with the linux-libre kernel just for funsies (and to completely eliminate proprietary dependencies).
After that if I still feel like going deeper I might try some greater challenges. Void, Alpine, Salix, Devuan, and Artix, to play around with different init systems and get a feel for the differences. At that point I’ll be familiar with most of the package managers too, and I’d also give musl and busybox a try to see how they compare to glibc and GNU coreutils.
If I still want to challenge myself more I might try Exherbo and/or LFS, but even without that I think the ones above will give me a good overview of what’s possible. I’m sure by then I’ll be able to pick a favorite.
But I’m really excited just to start learning and tinkering, even just on the more beginner-friendly distros. I’ve been bookmarking some open-source software, pages with useful info, etc. I just need to wait till I have a computer to try it on.
Someone should make an MMO for the fediverse. We can have meetings there, with a whiteboard for brainstorming and everything! It will be our headquarters.