I’ve spent years championing Linux as the only escape from Big Tech, but I’m starting to get twitchy.
While we’re distracted by the Steam Deck making Linux “mainstream,” the corporate players and politicians are busy building a digital cage. Between California’s AB-1043 mandates and Microsoft’s “Face Check” infrastructure, I’m worried we’re heading for a hard schism: “Sanitised Linux” vs the “Free Rebel” distros.
If the compliant, age-gated version becomes the industry standard, where does that leave the rest of us? Digital exile?
I’ve put some thoughts together on why the “Golden Cage” is closing in and why education, not mandates, is the only real fix.
People don’t care about this beacuse they will make it so that if you don’t ask questions it just works.
In the meantime those of us that need to work in these jurisdictions need to comply with the bullshit so we hope to be able to continue to work with linux, but if that won’t be possible we will be forced to write software for microsoft or whatever else in the apple crap.
That is why there will be forks for the hobbyists, but for those that need to actually use a computer to make a living, compliance was always the only creal choice.
And as usual some asshole will come with the usual nazi comparison with compliance, like they did in the other seven posts were the subject was discussed. These people can risk their own family but the way they write, they probably aren’t even responsible for themselves