APPropriate Behaviour
The book about all the things software writers do that aren't writing software.
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Category Archives: GNU
Whoever “wins”, software freedom loses
I’d like to start by recapping the three distinct categories of interest in software freedom. This is definitely my categorisation, though only the third is novel and the first two have long histories of common recognition so this is hardly … Continue reading
Posted in FLOSS, freesoftware, fsf, GNU
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Empowered free software
Free and open source software has traditionally been defined as the opposite of something else: proprietary (or commercially-licensed) software. That’s particularly obvious in the name of the GNU project, which calls itself “Not UNIX” – a popular AT&T-owned commercial software … Continue reading
Posted in freesoftware, GNU
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Making my peace
Nearly four years ago, in January 2015, I posted On Switching to Linux, in which my computer (in a photo from November 2014) looked like this: Here’s the same photo from today: So what’s changed? In the intervening four years, … Continue reading
An update on the HURD project
Last time, on Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers, I was building an object-oriented programming system on top of the HURD, and had realised that I needed to use its trivfs library for a sender to be able to discover … Continue reading
Posted in GNU, OOP, techradar
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Gently HURDing the side projects
I find it problematic that even at times when I’m avoiding computing outside of work, I still have ideas about things I would like to try out or improve in computing “if I had the time”. I tend to capture … Continue reading
Posted in GNU, learning, OOP, techradar
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The problem with not-Apple
I’ve read a few articles over the last week or so that point to the Mac having lost its shine among developers. There was a time when the first things you did when you wanted to be a developer on … Continue reading
Posted in GNU, gnustep, Mac
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Withholding the Four Freedoms
Having downsized my rather over-enthusiastic computer collection (thanks, eBay!), I was down to one computer. Unfortunately, as a rather long in the tooth MacBook Air, it’s no longer suited to my needs and neither is it upgradeable. I got all … Continue reading
Posted in freesoftware, GNU, UI
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In The Design of Design, Fred Brooks makes an interesting point about ESR’s description of the Bazaar model of Linux (and, by extension, “Open Source”) development. Linux was actually designed in a cathedral. The design was supplied by Unix, where … Continue reading
Today I learned that I don’t even know how to Unix. I discovered that it’s possible for a POSIX system to leave PATH_MAX and similar variables undefined if it truly has no restrictions on their length.
But where to go?
I agree with John Gruber here: it’s not like Apple’s stuff has become worse than a competitor’s, it’s just that it’s not as good as I remember or expect. It could be, as Daniel Jalkut suggests, rose-tinted glasses[*]. I don’t … Continue reading
Posted in GNU, Responsibility, UNIX
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