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mhoush: Free As In Freedom
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<h1>
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Free As In Freedom
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<div class="-mt-6">
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<span class="border-r border-gray pr-2 mr-2">April 09, 2024</span>1007 words, posted in <a href="/articles/tag/general/">general</a>, <a href="/articles/tag/open-source/">open-source</a> and <a href="/articles/tag/software/">software</a>
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<img alt="banner" src="http://localhost:3000/articles/images/2024-04-09-free-as-in-freedom.png"/>
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<p>This is a hot take kind of article, but here it goes the rant.</p>
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<h2>This applies to me and you.</h2>
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<p>I’m writing this to remind myself somethings that I too often take for granted. I am going to<br />
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preface this whole article by saying that everything I’m going to lay out / mention is something<br />
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that I am personally guilty of. This is an open reminder and call out of things that I feel should<br />
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change.</p>
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<h1>Our perspective is flawed</h1>
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<p>Nobody can dispute that the advances in technology have greatly improved our lives. Like anything,<br />
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though, there is a trade off.</p>
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<h2>What is FOSS</h2>
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<p>FOSS is an acronym for “Free and Open Source Software”. It is generally about how software is<br />
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licensed, meaning that the source code is available in the public for review, allowing a broader<br />
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spectrum of people than the originators of the code to have input, look for bugs, redistribute the<br />
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software, contribute, etc. It does not however mean that the software should be no cost to the end<br />
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user.</p>
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<p>This is where the word “freedom” comes into it. Overtime, as a society, we generally now think of<br />
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FOSS as “free” software. This takes what was originally a noble / courageous idea and devalues it to<br />
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the point that we now expect things to be free. It encourages corporate greed to take advantage of<br />
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people who created something to solve a particular need, or as a hobby, expecting the creator to<br />
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handle the burden of maintaining / patching bugs while they profit from it. Don’t get me wrong,<br />
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these corporations will also contribute back, sometimes even donate money to the creators. I am not<br />
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at all opposed to capitalism, nor saying that these corporations are in the wrong. At the end of the<br />
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day, <strong><em>we</em></strong> created this problem.</p>
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<h2>Current state and how we got here</h2>
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<p>Software services / giants create applications that we come to rely on. They tempt / bait us with<br />
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them being “free” or cheap, but that is because <strong><em>we</em></strong> are their target. They bloat the software<br />
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with tracking and telemetry to capture data about us and sell us more products and services. Once<br />
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again, if you’re pro-capitalism, it’s somewhat hard to blame them for this. We’re the gullible sheep<br />
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who will blindly eat out their grain bins.</p>
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<p>I can remember back in the day when there were music pirating services on the internet (napster is<br />
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the one that comes to mind). As a giant music buff, I quickly jumped on board with services like<br />
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these. Back in those days, I was young, didn’t make very much money, so it was hard to afford the<br />
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latest and greatest tunes. I also remember back in this time frame a lawsuit from the metal giants<br />
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Metallica (other’s words not mine ;)). At the time I remember thinking, like many others, that<br />
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Metallica didn’t need the money, but then a comment from Lars Ulrich the band’s drummer struck a<br />
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cord with me (pun intended). I’ll will paraphrase here, but it was something along the lines of<br />
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“We’re not pursuing this for us, but for all of those (musicians) that come after us”. After this<br />
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and reflection, I decided that I would not pirate music anymore.</p>
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<p>Fast forward, now the majority do not purchases music / albums, we typically utilize streaming<br />
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services (myself included), sure it may be more fair to the artists than pirating was, it can be<br />
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argued that it’s easier today for independent artists to become known / discovered, I’m also in no<br />
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way saying the old school music industry wasn’t a giant pile of dog poo, but I am saying that who is<br />
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really winning(?), it’s the Spotify’s and Apple Music’s of the world, that’s who.</p>
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<p>I’m also reminded of the great “MeasureQuick is now charging for services” that happened in the HVAC<br />
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industry. I have personally never complained and have always supported this decision, because it is<br />
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not sustainable to run a software company and not charge for services, generally. Sure, you may not<br />
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like their pricing model, etc. Where I think they went wrong was not charging from the beginning, as<br />
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it sets the wrong expectation that is presumably hard to recover from. There are those who took some<br />
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of Jim’s words / opinions in a way different from how I do / did, which is fine, we’re all entitled<br />
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to our opinions. What is often forgotten is that we’re all also entitled to change those opinions.<br />
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Heck, I will probably be shouting a different story tomorrow, so be it!</p>
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<h2>Conclusion</h2>
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<p>What I would like to encourage people to do is to support software development. If an application is<br />
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free, but has a donate button consider giving a donation. If an application is free and they don’t<br />
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want to charge that’s fine too, however I would say to be suspicous, meaning is it free because<br />
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<strong><em>you</em></strong> are the product?!?</p>
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<p>I would also encourage you to be active in communities and organizations that foster community (HVAC<br />
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School is a great example). Show appreciation and encouragement, but at the same time don’t be<br />
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afraid to be critical or speak up.</p>
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<p>At the end of the day, I hope to lift up my brothers and sisters, help to fight against the<br />
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corporations who abuse the little guy’s and hopefully feel good about my decisions.</p>
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<p>Over the last few weeks, I have been going through my software and services and looking for those<br />
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donation buttons and giving back a little bit for the software that makes my life better. Help<br />
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change the narrative and remember that it’s about <strong><em>Freedom not Free</em></strong>.</p>
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<h3>Links</h3>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software">Open-source Software</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation">Free Software Fondation</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://www.eff.org/">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Software used in this blog.</h3>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://neovim.io/">Neovim</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://gohugo.io/">Hugo</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://themes.gohugo.io/themes/poison/">Hugo Theme</a></li>
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</ul>
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<blockquote>
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<p><strong>Note:</strong> I do not use any trackers or analytics on this site to respect your privacy. So feel<br />
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free to contact me directly to share feedback or let me know how I’m doing.</p>
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</blockquote>
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</article>
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<div class="border-t border-light mt-8 pt-8">
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<h2 class="text-4xl font-extrabold mb-8">
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Written by
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</h2>
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<div class="flex-[0_0_120px]">
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<img class="w-[120px] h-[120px] rounded-full" src="/static/images/avatar.png"/>
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</div>
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<div class="prose">
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<h3 class="!m-0">
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Michael Housh
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</h3>
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<p class="text-gray">
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HVAC business owner with over 27 years of experience. Writes articles about HVAC,
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Programming, Home-Performance, and Building Science
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="mt-16">
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<h2 class="text-4xl font-extrabold mb-8">
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More articles
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</h2>
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<div class="grid lg:grid-cols-2 gap-10">
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<section>
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<h2 class="text-2xl font-bold mb-2">
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<a class="[&:hover]:border-b border-orange" href="/articles/2025/vapor-htmx-todo-app/">Vapor + HTMX</a>
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</h2>
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<div class="text-gray gray-links text-sm mb-4">
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<span class="border-r border-gray pr-2 mr-2">January 05, 2025</span><a href="/articles/tag/general/">general</a>, <a href="/articles/tag/programming/">programming</a> and <a href="/articles/tag/software/">software</a>
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</div>
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<p>
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<a href="/articles/2025/vapor-htmx-todo-app/"><div>
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<img alt="banner" src="http://localhost:3000/articles/images/2025-01-05-vapor-htmx-todo-app.png"/>
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Build an example application using Vapor and HTMX.
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</div></a>
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</p>
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</section>
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<section>
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<h2 class="text-2xl font-bold mb-2">
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<a class="[&:hover]:border-b border-orange" href="/articles/2024/pgp-encryption-introduction/">PGP Encryption Introduction</a>
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</h2>
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<div class="text-gray gray-links text-sm mb-4">
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<span class="border-r border-gray pr-2 mr-2">April 04, 2024</span><a href="/articles/tag/gnupgp/">GnuPGP</a>, <a href="/articles/tag/pgp/">PGP</a>, <a href="/articles/tag/programming/">programming</a> and <a href="/articles/tag/security/">security</a>
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</div>
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<p>
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<a href="/articles/2024/pgp-encryption-introduction/"><div>
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<img alt="banner" src="http://localhost:3000/articles/images/2024-04-04-pgp-encryption-introduction.gif"/>
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In this article I introduce PGP and show a use case for me, which perhaps you can use as well.
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What is PGP
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PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy, it was first developed in 1991 by Phil Zimmermann. PGP uses
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cryptographic privacy and authentication and is...
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</div></a>
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</p>
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</section>
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<p class="prose mt-8">
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<a href="/articles/">› See all articles</a>
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Copyright © Michael Housh 2023-2025.
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