Back in the time when I disliked it and, to a lesser extent, AppArmor, the reason was pretty simple:

It forces services to lie to me / It gets in the way of software doing what I tell it to do.

The examples would be rather simple. Need to spin up a second instance of a database server, sure, just set up the given config file with datadir=/mount/point/second/disk/var/lib/database. Should work… Nope. Database errors out despite the directory existing and being writable and all permissions being right. Insists it’s “file permissions”. Try to look around, to no end. Then it turns out there is some secret NSA Cabal infiltrated in my server already that… for some weird reason, forces databases to be installed on /var/lib even though when that is almost full and I mounted a second disk to have more room. And thus the service lies to me, says file permissions, well I checked them several times and they were alright.

Stupid NSA cabal thing stupidly getting in the way of configuring things and adding more entrypoints you have to edit and services you have to configure just to start up a program. I want to start a database, not set up a DEFCON 1 line! Those days I was beginning to miss SQLite already…

Similar issues I had with webservers, network share servers, joysticks and gamepads, and even audio devices. Never got a clear idea of what it was, software says something like “permission error” or “not a device file” but I checked and those are alright. A long sigh, remember than when you install a new computer you have to disable SELinux and AppArmor and reboot, boom, done, everything magically works.

Fortunately things have improved a long way since, but back in the day, they were one of the most grating obstacles to me for getting friends, let alone clients, to adopt Linux.

False. Browsers can announce themselves as desktop or mobile, or even advertise pre-determined fake window and screen sizes for this purpose (in Firefox it’s called “letterboxed” in the hidden settings). There is no need for a server to have any of this information anyway - either the design of the webpage should be responsive by default, or the server can send specifically whichever files for styles the browser specifically asks for, perhaps falling back to a “all.css” or something.

If you don’t trust it, why use it? It’s still slop in the end, just somewhat less slopified.

Consider: either you are smarter than the tool you use, in which case it doesn’t really offer anything much, or you are dumber than the tool you use, in which case you wouldn’t be qualified to judge its results anyway.

To be fair, when it comes to both physical and digital fascism, every time the slippery slopers have been told they are sloping and exaggerating, they are actually proven right.

Unless you use xdg-desktop-portal, the field that systemd added does absolutely nothing.

Yet. it’s a foot-on-the-door to demand more stuff, and some distros have already shown they are going to merrily open up their arses and ours.

Congrats guys! We did it!

Thanks for joining in!

Seriously, enough was going on with the project that the AI was just the final nail (or the deepest nail) in the coffin. What’s important is that we denounce AI where we see it, as this (and not “usage”) is the only non-violent way we have to try and lead a change in how AI is developed and deployed in the first place. The problem is not simply “someone can use AI in their spare time”, it’s what even has to happen as a prerequisite for that to even be a thing in the first place (code theft, mass license violation, environmental destruction, RAM shortages, erosion of civil and digital rights, exemptions for big corpo, you name it).

We should all feel ashamed that an open source project was shuttered because of how our community acted.

Open Source means the source is open, not that you can do whatever ass-unethical thing you want. That weird impression of the world is something that techbros, cryptobros and liberals are trying to push. Don’t be fooled. We defended ourselves, and we managed a tie.

That’s precisely why they have to be resisted and/or we have to look for alternatives that Do One Thing Well. Among many other issues, the networking effect issue with EverythingApps is quite double-faceted in that, because they do everything, their “weight” not only acts as gilded cages to prevent people from leaving, but also to prevent developers, working on their spare time, from developing something that can be reasonably understood as an “alternative” (because the alternative has to also Do Everything).

It’s basically playing a loser game to lose, see eg.: Mozilla always at best playing catch-up to Google, or why we can’t seem to move from BloatedWebWithReact to something like Gopher (or even make a proper Gopher 2.0).

All that said, I feel like XMPP and Matterbridge are approaching this from the right perspective. Just implement a global communication protocol and leave to platform makers (or platform users) the task of bridging from and to whatever directions they want.

Hmmmm voice chat eh?

Well then it’s time to recommend Mumble!

I hear Snikket makes it really easy to host XMPP (aka Jabber).

Bringing back a meme from the very early '00s (if not earlier), I’d say something like “Cloning Discord is my passion”.

It really looks like every programmer wannabe is trying to bumrush a Discord codeslop for free internet fame points these days!

Even if the “has an optional AI assistant” was not a thing, the repo includes an AGENTS.md file, which is also listed in the criteria, and more than qualifies it as slopware.

It might be, but for some people that might, understandably, be already bad enough, a line in the sand if you will.

I’m reminded of this statement about LLMs and the kind of people who use them in the first place. It’s an early indicator that quality (and sovereignty) of the software is going to go the incline down.

Geez… problems never end, do they.

I’m barely active in Codeberg. Unless someone beats me by, say, end-of-month, I might file an issue about it; that said, I’d like to be able to offer at least one (1) functional alternative rather than simply +1’ing to the complains that this or that is Never Good Enough.

Damn it!!! 😵

Quick! Someone add it to Open Slopware!

Truly an actor of all time. Sometimes I think Oscars and Emmys and all that shit should be able to be granted retroactively (hellooooo, “you broke your little ships” scene).

You could, in the meantime, simply not upgrade to the version that uses AI.

Since, from what I’m seeing around, people are having issues looking for an alternative.

Terms of Use / Terms of Service are different from Licenses. That said, even if it was compatible that would be a good thing, as the impression I’ve got is that the “hard-liner” Free Software licenses are becoming a thing of the past now that what is needed is “Ethical Source” licenses, that eg.: restrict usage in AI.

“I use LibreOffice Writer and other Linux apps”. There, simple as that.

If they ask why and show a more actual concerned interest, I usually mention Microslop history of privacy invasions and history of deliberate incompatibilities in Office, and recommend a few links documenting that stuff as well as some legal hot waters Microslop has gotten into.