Re: inspired

[Jorge P . de Morais Neto]

Hi Charlie!  I apologize for having taken 9 days to reply, but I finally
do it below:

Em [2023-04-29 sáb 11:40:40+0000], charlie derr escreveu:

> i was an active reader for a bit way back (more than 2 1/2 decades
> ago) upon first engaging with the internet back when this was a
> newsgroup

Interesting.  Only on August 2021 did I learn (from FSF's Greg Farough)
of gnu-misc-discuss.  And I didn't even know gnu-misc-discuss was once a
newsgroup.

> Thank you so much Jorge for alerting me to the fact that this forum
> still exists.

You're welcome!

> certainly if there are options any of you know about that you
> recommend, i'd be willing to consider those for my next purchase

I myself also (sadly) use proprietary UEFI and firmware, so I cannot
lead you by example, but still I can recommend these online resources:

- https://h-node.org/
- https://ryf.fsf.org/products "Products | RYF"

> until i recently spun up a couple of cheap (publicly facing) VMs,
> which i'm trying to be far more careful with

Interesting!  I should add that when it is impractical to host your own
service, the next best options (AFAIK) are ethical services from small
decentralized providers promoting privacy and free software, such as
Disroot.  Speaking of ethical decentralized services, I also recommend
the web extension LibRedirect.  It automatically redirects requests to
G$$gle Maps to OpenStreetMaps, YouTube to Invidious and many others.

- https://disroot.org/
- https://libreho.st/ "libreho.st - the librehosters network"
- https://github.com/libredirect/browser_extension

> free software may not solve all of humanity's problems, but it's
> definitely a component of getting us pointed in a better direction as
> a species (imnho)

I second that.  Free software is important in the struggle against
surveillance capitalism, which in turn is a terrible threat for real
democracy.  Free software is also all about sharing, community, and
fraternity/sorority, and can inspire a more humane society in general.
I myself have converted from right-wing to center-left, partly inspired
by the free software movement, besides Pope Francis and Noam Chomsky.

> i have a strong interest in wiki software, information commons, and
> platforms which enable the spreading of knowledge

Very recently I have resumed contributing to the Portuguese language
Wikipedia (I am Brazilian).

> i'm a huge fan of emacs, and am just now beginning to try to
> understand how to use gnus for email

Great!  I am also a huge GNU Emacs fan, although I currently use Notmuch
as my Emacs mail client.  For work I have to use Microsoft Office 365
email, so I use GNOME Evolution, as it is difficult to use Office 365
email with Emacs.

> i love org-mode

It love it too, but while Org Mode's technology itself is great, I lack
the skill to use it effectively as a personal organizer.  I tend to
write down far too many notes and appointments.  This is obviously not
Org Mode's fault though.

> The other technology (which i was not familiar with previously) they
> are using in prototyping stuff is a distributed one: hyperdrive.

Could you be more specific?  When I search the web for hyperdrive, I get
many science fiction results.  The Free Software Directory has nothing,
and Wikipedia does not seem to have anything relevant either.

> i use git daily (and have been for years) but am not a power user (i
> still don't really get how to "appropriately" merge conflicts)

I must admit I am in the same situation.

Finally, please disregard the other reply to your message.  That person
is a childish troll; I recommend filtering out his emails.

Regards!

-- 
- I am Brazilian.  I hope my English is correct and I welcome feedback.
- Free Software Supporter: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter
- https://www.fsf.org/ "Free Software Foundation: working together for free 
software"
- Many people hate injustice but few check the facts; this causes more
  injustice.  Ask me about <https://stallmansupport.org>