Just a note on the efficacy of activist messages in FOSS.
In the Aughts, I was learning to play with microcontrollers. PIC microcontrollers were free as well as the JAL language. I ordered a hardware programmer from the Dutch guy who created JAL: Wouter van Ooijen. Probably my first purchase online. There was a statement in the license, to the effect of, the language could not be used to develop arms.
Looking back, that was a turning point for me. I was machining arms for a living and continued to do so for years. It got me to thinking about what it was that I was producing with my hands. Weapons for killing people.
I thought about it a lot. All these things I was making with blood and sweat being used to kill people. Running machines on night shift gives you time to think.
His statement was, at minimum, at least partially responsible for me changing my mind. I grew past the bad religion and far right ideology that I was taught.
I’m going to send him a thank you note.
I’m just an internet stranger, but I’m proud of your growth. Many people in similar positions would’ve spent those years digging themselves deeper, because confronting the cognitive dissonance is not easy (you may well have spent some of that time digging deeper, but you made it out, and I’m glad you’re here with us)
I dug into ‘Creation Science’ for a while as a result of the cognitive dissonance. Trying to square reason and science with religion and belief in an inerrant Bible. Ultimately, I lost my religion and had an existential crisis that lasted about a year.
It was terrible. Panic attacks and circular thinking. An existential crisis is depression’s cousin. Painful, frightening, and eventually exciting. I’m free now. I got rid of the slavery that was pushed into me as a child. Still have to fight the guilt and bad thought patterns.
I was not successful in bringing any friends or family with me from before. I tried. I have regrets, but would do it again.
Not an easy thing to change about oneself. Good job and thanks for sharing 👏
Wow, never thought I could like notepad++ even more…
Don Ho is a stand up guy! Notepad++ is also a great piece of software.
Notepad++ is still the second thing I install after
ChromeFirefoxwhatever the fuck i’m gonna use nowLibreWolf ( https://librewolf.net/ )
This is awesome, as is the number of people over in the XDA comments all finding a way to get angry at software they’ve never used.
XDA is asking for disabling my adblocker? WTF? I guess i won’t be reading the article.
What browser and adblocker?
Vivaldi, no adblocker, it seems it has one integrated… maybe?
If you want to consistently block ads, you can’t use a chromium based browser since they don’t support ublock origin
Interesting piece. Thanks for sharing 🙏
Hopely he doesn’t put the political messaging into the software.
Everything you do or don’t do is a political statement. Do you think you can somehow exist in a bubble where politics is something that happens to someone else? How naive.
Did you read the article? If you have a problem with the political messages he is adding to the releases, you’ve probably been brainwashed by a government or a political party. He’s not saying anything controversial, mostly just “Hey y’all, genocide bad.”
Here to cheerfully crush your hopes and say he does!
He did. A notable update for Notepad++ compulsory had a support message for Charlie Hebdo. Its his right to do so, and he’s not wrong.
