• TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    It would be amazing if even a small portion of EU fines for big tech companies went to supporting open source alternatives.

    In the Linux world, we are seeing right now how much things like Valve putting a bit of money into Linux, Germany’s Sovereign Tech Fund giving €1m to the Gnome foundation, etc, is improving things massively. Funding helps. Developers/designers/etc like being paid.

    Imagine if even 1% of these big tech fines went into a pot that an independent body chooses open projects to invest in. It’d be huge.

    Open source has a sustainability problem in terms of funding, developers, and burnout. To me it seems we have a relatively easy and politically palatable solution.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      The EU spends plenty of grant money on FLOSS. It’s part of the general Horizon grants, there’s a bug bounty programme (as replacement for the hackatons which didn’t work as well as imagined), and last but not least the EU publishes lots of software as FLOSS.

      You don’t want to make that stuff contingent on big tech misbehaving. The fines go into the general EU budget but the EU doesn’t get to keep it, membership fees are lowered in the next year by the same amount thus the windfall goes to member state’s budgets.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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      8 months ago

      Germany’s Sovereign Tech Fund giving €1m to the Gnome foundation

      Why, in Germany of all countries they should have supported KDE. Granted, it’s already doing fine, but then Gnome’s problem is not with lack of money.

      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Probably because Gnome is used in more businesses and Gnome is pretty good at implementing accessibility features, which was one of the main conditions of the grant.

        And it’s not a big deal, KDE is already getting a lot of support, and the work Gnome is doing is going to be an open, cross-desktop framework. It benefits KDE too.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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          8 months ago

          and Gnome is pretty good at implementing accessibility features, which was one of the main conditions of the grant.

          At the same time yes and … they are very unorthodox in their understanding of what makes things more accessible.

          • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Not making their DE yet another Windows clone does not mean it’s inaccessible.

            I get it, you clearly have a personal issue with Gnome. Just don’t use it then. There’s no need to be upset about an amazing open source project getting support and improving the accessibility stack for the entire Linux desktop.

            • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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              8 months ago

              I use FVWM with 2-pixel solid borders and no window titlebars or buttons or panels, except for one FvwmButtons instance with digital clock, all keyboard-controlled. EDIT: … so I obviously don’t prefer Windows

              The issues with Gnome are that it’s resource-heavy and inconsistent in UX, and setting it up is PITA.

              Cinnamon as its fork is much better.

              • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                I use FVWM with 2-pixel solid borders and no window titlebars or buttons or panels, except for one FvwmButtons instance with digital clock, all keyboard-controlled. EDIT: … so I obviously don’t prefer Windows

                k

                The issues with Gnome are that it’s resource-heavy

                No it isn’t. Stop making shit up.

                inconsistent in UX

                Gnome is easily the most consistent DE out there. By far. Honestly, by far and away the most consistent. Even MacOS is less consistent, and that’s saying something.

                and setting it up is PITA.

                ? Install it and it’s done. I change a couple of keyboard shortcuts too but that’s unnecessary.

                Cinnamon as its fork is much better.

                So a Windows UX clone. Not everything has to be yet another Windows clone. What happened to you not preferring Windows UX lol

                • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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                  8 months ago

                  No it isn’t. Stop making shit up.

                  I’ve even seen benchmarks. In my own experience it’s slow where default KDE5 is fast. I didn’t dig why, because I’m not going to use a full-fledged DE over my cozy FVWM setup anyway.

                  Also accusing better people than you of lying is impolite.

                  Gnome is easily the most consistent DE out there. By far. Honestly, by far and away the most consistent. Even MacOS is less consistent, and that’s saying something.

                  I already guessed that’s your opinion, but OK. “Even”? It’s the same horror as MacOS.

                  So a Windows UX clone. Not everything has to be yet another Windows clone. What happened to you not preferring Windows UX lol

                  It can look like Gnome 3 UX clone too, and that’s how it looked when I used it. Just more consistent and usable.

                  Anyway, there’s such a thing as ergonomics. It’s not really subjective, it can be measured in clicks and keystrokes, with accounting for mistakes and searching for elements of UI. Gnome devs are clearly ignorant of it.

                  MacOS and Gnome are sometimes worse than even modern Windows in that regard.

                  BTW, about Windows - w2k and xp were very good in terms of ergonomics.

                  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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                    8 months ago

                    You’re lying. That’s why I called you a liar.

                    Gnome is the most consistent. That’s an objective, factual statement.

                    No, you talked about a Windows UX clone. We get it, you want everything to be a Windows clone.

                    Just more consistent

                    Lmao

                    Anyway, there’s such a thing as ergonomics.

                    Something gnome does very well and Windows and its clones don’t.

                    Honestly, I don’t know why only Gnome devs seems to care about consistency and ergonomics. It’s maddening.

                    BTW, about Windows - w2k and xp were very good in terms of ergonomics.

                    HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

                    HAHAHAHAHAA

                    HAHAHAHA

                    HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

                    AHAHAHAHAHA

                    HAHAHAHAH

                    Lol

    • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      I apologize, but I initially read “imagine if just 1% of these fines went into pot” and I was 100% on board for a brief time

    • AVengefulAxolotl@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Yeah, but until then we can support these projects. Even a one-time 10€ donation can go a huge distance, or monthly 1€ even. These add up.

      P.S. To any open source devs, please allow us to donate yearly recurring 10-15€! There are so many projects to support, but i have to live from something as well.