How the fuck do we overcome "alternative" software/services brand problem?

[extratone]

From The Psalms About page:

The Open Source/Open Web community continues to struggle with their brand image (if you will) in both old and new ways that needlessly alienate (and sometimes obfuscate) some of their most important contributions from the average user. Technology media has failed in their responsibility to address this issue.

I really wanted my Mastodon iOS App guide (#107) to be as free of editorializing/the "alternative" conversation as possible in the consideration that it has serious potential to appear first in search results for potential/new Mastodon users - I did and do not want The Psalms to become just another Linux blog. If anything, one of its (my) fundamental purposes is to break free of the technical/ethical/academic conversations about this stuff for End Users' sake. For better or worse, it would seem the life purpose I have assumed over the past few years is to be a bridge between Tech Bros and regular people; to discover and extract the significant financial and social benefits from within the "nerd" sphere and present them in a way that effectively skirts the common (and not necessarily unreasonable!!!) assumptions about them which lead to dismissing the whole lot.

I just wanted to write one fucking post that stayed 100% on the most "objective" plane of a topic that should be as simple as comparing fucking phone apps... But I can't. It doesn't make any sense. All I know to do, now: include what I've said in this post, basically.

[extratone]

BREAKING

I have CONFIRMED that young Linux/FOSS users in 2021 do in fact have a sense of humor.

I hung out in the Pine64 Discord for a little over an hour before the WWDC keynote started on Monday and they were great! They indulged my (probably disruptive, in retrospect) shouts and rants and questions.

TY Tree Phone Community <3

[extratone]

"Weekly Musings 063"

By Weekly Musings
''

---

This week, it's time for another letter about technology. As with my other musings on that subject, I'm not discussing the intricacies of any technology, but a more ephemeral aspect of it.

Before anyone starts reading between lines that aren't there, understand that this musing isn't an attack on or an indictment of free and open source software. Open source is the tech world in which I live. It's the world that I know best and the one with which I have the most experience. What I discuss in the essay you're about to read applies any technology. In fact, it applies to just about anything.

With that out of the way, let's get to this week's musing.

On Open Source and the Power User Fallacy

It wasn't that long ago that the free and open source (FOSS) world wasn't a pleasant place to be in. If you were someone who lacked technical skills and posted for help in a forum, you were as liable to get belittled as you were to get help.

And woe betide you if you wrote or said something that didn't mesh with the ideas or beliefs of some corner or the other of the FOSS world. On more than one occasion, I was on the receiving end of some nasty backlash. Yeah, fun times.

Thankfully, things have changed. For the most part, anyway. The free and open source software world is now a lot more open, accepting, giving, and tolerant. There are still pockets like the ones I just described, but they're fewer and smaller now. But the attitude that you need deep technical skills to be involved in or use FOSS persists.

That was brought home to me in March of 2019. That's when secure device maker Purism announced its Librem One suite of secure, open source web apps. I heard more than a few people say Why would you need something like that? Some of those people expressed that sentiment in tones of anger and outrage. More than was warranted, in my opinion...

-"Weekly Musings 063"