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As a longtime provider of services in one form or another since the late 80's and early 90's, I felt the pain of having to write out the following blog post/update.
Drew is an opinionated perfectionist with an attention to detail and his perspective that chafes some, endears others, and deservedly, receives the respect earned when someone strives toward par excellence for those for whom they provide services for.
I have some differing set of conclusions from my understanding of what he laments as the ordeal he's been through in the past year, like, "why would anyone consider a carrier besides DHL for international overseas shipments?" Also, I fail to see the logic in moving his entire infra from the U.S. (where there are many affordable top-tier carrier hotels - aka datacenters) to Amsterdam, which also has fine facilities and maybe it is because of privacy concerns which depending on what those are, may indeed be quite valid from my perspective.
But not having IPv6 fully deployed (as a result of datacenter choice?) is puzzling, although almost inconsequential operationally, in production, ... Almost.
Considering I've always looked directly at the carriers themselves, used my own delegated IP infrastructure for core operations, I tend to look at a datacenter as three things:
Electricity
Fail-over electricity (Generators)
Air conditioning
Most folks rent a rack that comes with transit, I ask how much the XC is - I can find, mix, and pick my transit providers. I just wanna know that my shit is secure in a suite or cage behind locked cabinets that I personally have 24/7 access to at anytime (even though I'll rarely do so) and have 24/7 remote hands to swap drives, hot-pluggable power supplies and plug cables into the designated ports I specify, etc. Those things typically come w/zero cost.
For DDoS'ing, I do like to outsource this as part of a package, and I'm open to any offers of included transit/XC and want to know how much each additional 20A of electricity cost me each month in addition to the rack fees. Putting the onerous of protecting my customers from a good DDoS'ing on someone else like my upstream takes a lot of worry away.
Shipping machinery though, that's a bit distinct too, I've been burned a few times domestically, although always recovered my *tangible costs - time? well, I've lost a couple of customers because their infra was lost or damaged in transit, but insurance is important - Drew had that. What I'm really wondering though, is who besides DHL would you even trust to ship servers over the Atlantic Ocean?
That's a cost I would not consider skimping on - A girl I almost married worked for DHL for over 20 years and they'll cut a check at the drop of a hat, which might have worked out well for Drew considering these were old boxes ready for retirement anyway and the replacement cost (new stuffs) is what you insure for.
Anyway, I've really admired much of what Drew has done over the years, was cheerleading for him as he migrated from full time paycheck person to finally being able to announce that he "thinks" he can make enough money for a living by devoting himself full time to FOSS with his fledgling SourceHut.
Yah, sometimes his head swelled up pretty big, making it hard to fit through doorways, and I've butted heads with him here and there on technical matters only, but have always respected him, and in truth, he was never not correct even if his way was the wrong way, or there was simply a better way - usually those were matters of opinion coz there's more than six ways to Sunday to skin a cat.
Anyway, he's been kicked in the balls really hard, which if you know much of him, must have been really hard to lay all of that out in some manner of detail (He's almost always brutally transparent). For that, and moreover for getting right back up after being knocked down (maybe by da man?), I applaud his candidness. His devotion to those of you reading this that may have free repos at SourceHut, and I'm also encouraging everyone to kick in at least a few bucks - fuck that dumb app that you don't need, let alone pay $2.95 for the exclusive right to be tracked - I urge you with all FOSSiness in mind... Give it a read, and send him whatev, ... I guarantee it will come back to you tenfold.
Drew is a consummate FOSS warrior, do it for yourself, please - Five bucks, fifty bucks, heck, whatever isn't going to cut into your budget for porterhouse steak this weekend would be nice.
And it will make you feel good too.
Full disclosure: I'm not getting shit from this article. Drew and I only converse occasionally and usually it is to disagree - some folks are just good coz of what's in their heart, their commitment to the community, and whether you're a fan or not doing this for him really is doing this for yourself and everyone else in the FOSS world.
Better safe than sorry with a utility that requires as many permissions as Bartender does. I’ve loved and used Bartender for years - decades, maybe? - but that was because I trusted the developer.
When you see some of what WMF has to deal with in terms of massive scraping of not only Wikipedia, but also the gigantic codebase and ticketing system and many of the other services, you start to understand why GitHub killed off unauthenticated search.
Commercial and non-considerate activity, really is grinding the open Internet to a standstill at times.
The mass exodus from #Windows to #Linux (and #Mac) due to #Windows11 and #AI continues. More and more articles, more and more youtube videos about it, or posts on forums. People are switching. If it continues like that, Linux should have 10% desktop marketshare by the end of the decade (and yes, that's a lot).
Though, "we" know most of the #opensource alternatives around, I like @Framasoft's approach of presenting and promoting various #degoogled services in a bundle. And, I have to admit, there is always one or the option in that range, that I had not known about! Merci, #Framasoft! 👍
We did it, folks! Matrix has hit a new milestone in its open governance by electing a Governing Board to guide the Foundation and provide more representative and structured input to the evolution of the protocol.
Of course, while seating a Governing Board is a big deal, the hardest work remains ahead of us. I have high hopes for what we will accomplish together! 🚀 https://matrix.org/blog/2024/06/election-results/
💸 Kritik an Ausgaben des Bundes: Millionen für Microsoft - Die Ausgaben des Bundes für Software-Lizenzen und IT-Dienstleistungen steigen.
von #SvenjaBergt : taz.de/Kritik-an-Ausgaben-des-…
"(...) Bundesministerien und zugehörigen Behörden haben im vergangenen Jahr erstmals mehr als 1 Milliarde Euro für Software-Lizenzen und IT-Dienstleistungen gezahlt – davon 197,7 Millionen Euro an Microsoft (...)
SPD, Grüne und FDP haben eigentlich in ihrem Koalitionsvertrag vereinbart, dass Aufträge für Software „in der Regel als #OpenSource beauftragt“ werden. Denn der verbreitete Einsatz von Microsoft-Produkten steht schon lange in der Kritik. Bereits 2019 stellte eine Studie im Auftrag des Innenministeriums eine Abhängigkeit der Bundesverwaltung von wenigen Software-Anbietern fest"
Great morning in #Oslo visiting Boye & Co's #DigitalStrategy group. My topic: how certain software procurement choices deserve a #PeacePrize. 🕊️ A very interesting discussion followed! Yay! 😃 #OpenSource#FOSS
#Irreal highlighted @jbaty blog post on the "gravitational pull of emacs" a cyclic moving away for simplicity's sake and a gradual pull back as personal comforts of customisations coax and inevitable return to #emacs
I've noticed a similar tidal motion back and forth, but instead of simple note-taking apps I flow between Emacs and other simpler #FOSS editors, like #Featherpad or #Notepadplusplus
Ultimately the draw & utility of #OrgMode sucks me back into Emacs and has me nuzzling comfortably back in my custom config.
This is probably a result of trying to walk the tight rope of balance between literally "getting things done" (not the GTD system) and "making life easier" with settings & customising.
I suppose, one day, the customisations might reach a stable state & the use of other editors becomes unnecessary. Balance achieved. Enlightenment.
But you know, in tech, everything moves on eternally so the balance undulates softly over time. Not to mention our lives and needs also shift over time.
So perhaps this do-si-do dance we do, will always be?
1 year ago I made an important document using a 30 days trial of a #proprietary#software. Today I had to update the document. I could have bought the proprietary software for 75€, but instead I’ve tested #Inkscape for the first time in my life. Inkscape has ingested a #PDF version of my original document and allowed me to update it. Bonus, the exported PDF size is only a tenth of what the other software produced.
So I’ve just donated 75$ to Inkscape via Software Freedom Conservancy. #FOSS
Oooooof. @baldur's take on the Jobs to be Done of modern software development is brutal.
The conclusion is pretty sobering too: that LLMs will become embedded in software development because they truly deliver on this promise of churn, and do it at lower cost than software developers.
@elizayer
I remain hopeful. Products ultimately have to work and when they don't those behind them lose.
Reminds me of Jobs and the Apple Newton, the doomed forerunner to the Apple iPod and ultimately the iPhone. All from Jobs' vision and drive, one an utter failure, like the car 🤷♂️. I can hear someone saying why didn't we just put #LLMs in it... 🤦♂️
#p2p can change this, or at least make a dent as big as #FOSS. Together? 🥳 @jimkreft