From the project’s readme:
Apple’s AirPort Utility is not guaranteed to run on macOS 27 and newer, so I reverse engineered the application and have reimplemented it for macOS 27 and newer with Swift (front-end code) and Python (backend protocol code).
I love that this exists.
(Via Rui Carmo.)
➝ Source: github.com
It goes without saying, but this is how companies should be sunsetting their devices. Most people aren’t going to go through the trouble of finding and installing some open source tool on GitHub to breathe new life into a device like this. So Bose probably doesn’t have much to worry about when it comes to their own older devices cannibalizing sales of future devices.
For the few people who do go through the trouble, they get some extra use out of a device that would otherwise have limited functionality. And for everyone else, they get to read a story about Bose doing the right thing, which gives them an excellent reason to consider Bose’s devices for future purchases.
➝ Source: arstechnica.com
I saw David Heinemeier Hansson recently wrote about this topic and thought I’d take a crack at the question as well.
I’m sure there are plenty of others, but I’ve identified what I believe to be the primary reasons why more people don’t use Linux.
Apple, Google, and Microsoft spend millions of dollars each year promoting the use of their operating systems. And not just through direct advertising, but also in the form of salespersons convincing large corporations, organizations, and governments to use their operating system over free alternatives.
They’re some of the largest companies in the world and are able to promote their software to every corner of the market.
By comparison, when was the last time you saw a Linux distribution advertising their operating system? Probably never. I don’t think I ever have.
But I suspect the majority of their efforts are targeted toward hosting companies and perhaps some segment of the developer user base.
Dell, HP, Apple, Acer, Lenovo, and more. They’ve all built their business around selling computers and offering support to their customers. There may be some non-zero amount of effort put toward supporting Linux on their machines — I know that some of them have sold computers with Linux pre-installed and would have wrote documentation and done testing for those customers.
But it’s minuscule compared to the knowledge and expertise that they have in building and supporting computers that run Windows, macOS, and ChromeOS.
I’ve had some conversations about Linux with some close friends and family. All of whom I’d think of as having a, roughly, average level of technical knowledge about computers. And one of the points that has been brought up on multiple occasions is the idea that if something goes wrong when they’re using one of the major operating systems, they know who they can call for help.
If they were running Linux, though, they have no idea. They can’t just call the support line for their computer manufacturer and expect to get assistance. They’d likely end up relying on me or they’d be aimlessly searching for answers on the web — almost certainly without the vocabulary necessary to craft fruitful search terms.
I’m sure most people have a pretty similar experience when it comes to computer access. You likely had Windows machines at your school and maybe some Macs for specific classes — we used them in my photography class in high school.
Children of today might be slightly different, I know ChromeBooks and iPads are seeing some usage.
At home, your family probably had Windows machines or maybe Macs, but obviously that wasn’t as common. Likewise, if you use a computer at your job, it’s almost certainly a Windows machine or less commonly a Mac.
The overwhelming majority of users have absolutely zero experience with Linux. So it’s difficult to convince them to jump on board with something they’re completely unfamiliar with.
Even for many users that have deeper experience with macOS and Windows, Linux is perceived as a difficult operating system to use and maintain. The type of users that have installed Windows from scratch, recovered a Mac using a Time Machine backup, or have spent time customizing their system beyond the surface-level tools built into the operating system.
Some of that may have been warranted in the past. I know I’ve spent my fair share of hours trying to get Wi-Fi working on some machines or hitting my head against the wall because of some graphics card driver issue.
I still have trouble with these things from time to time — generally because of hardware that’s a bit tricky to get working on Linux.
But I think a lot of people think of Linux as often requiring a command line to function. But I think, for the majority of users, they could use a Linux desktop for years without having to use the command line for anything.
Many Linux distributions have far better hardware support than I’ve experienced in the past. There are the occasional hiccups, but if you are already using Linux or know that you plan to use Linux, you can just buy hardware that has solid support without jumping through hoops.
That combined with the software center apps that make installing and removing software a breeze, Linux is pretty darn user friendly.
I expect most of the people reading this would consider themselves to be a bit more technologically savvy compared to the average user. What we can do, if we want more people to use Linux, is to start using it ourselves.
Eventually, as we gain more familiarity with the system ourselves, the idea of convincing a friend or family member to switch will become more approachable.
The key is to wait for the timing to be right. For example, my mother-in-law is currently using an older iMac as her primary computer.
It works okay for now, but Apple doesn’t offer software updates for it anymore. Brave and Chrome still support the operating system that she’s running, but that won’t be the case forever. Eventually, you won’t be able to get a decent browser that runs on the machine that also receives regular updates.
At that point, a new computer seems like the obvious solution. But the iMac has a quad-core processor, enough memory for her tasks, and a solid state drive. The hardware itself is more than capable.
When that time comes, it will be the perfect time to pitch the idea of installing Linux.
Consider the options:
The great thing is, if she were to try using Linux and it doesn’t work out, she could always just fallback to buying a new machine. There’d be no harm done and at least we gave the free option a shot.
There are likely other scenarios where suggesting Linux as an alternative could be met with interest. Maybe the next time Microsoft decides to add a feature to Windows that’s almost universally detested. Or when Apple decides to add yet another security feature that will primarily serve to annoy macOS users.
Think of it as the type of effort that many of us participated in with Firefox in the mid-2000s, helping friends and family install it on their machines and encouraging them to use it over Internet Explorer. That effort, in no small part, helped Firefox reach its peak marketshare of 38%.
Now I don’t expect we’ll ever reach those heights with Linux in desktop marketshare, but we can certainly improve things. And I think the world would be better if we did.
From the project’s homepage:
Ladybird is a brand-new browser & web engine. Driven by a web standards first approach, Ladybird aims to render the modern web with good performance, stability and security.
From its humble beginnings as an HTML viewer for the SerenityOS hobby operating system project, Ladybird has since grown into a cross-platform browser supporting Linux, macOS, and other Unix-like systems.
Ladybird is currently in heavy development. We are targeting a first Alpha release for early adopters in 2026.
I hope this project becomes wildly successful.
➝ Source: ladybird.org
I can’t imagine ever following anyone on an instance like this, but I’m glad it exists. Other countries should follow suit.
➝ Source: pcmag.com
Matt Mullenweg, speaking with Protocol:
As more and more of our lives start to be run and dictated by the technology we use, it’s a human right to be able to see how that technology works and modify it. It’s as key to freedom as freedom of speech or freedom of religion. So that is what I plan to spend the rest of my life fighting for.
And this bit at the end of David Pierce’s article is just perfect:
After we hung up our first Zoom call, Mullenweg sent me an email with the subject line “Freedom is central.” The body was a quote from Albert Camus, which worked as an explanation for just about everything Mullenweg believes in, fights for and plans to spend the rest of his life working on: “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” The email was just that, Mullenweg’s name and three links to WordPress sites. What else do you need to know?
I plan to spend the rest of my career at Automattic because this is exactly the attitude I want to be surrounded by.
➝ Source: protocol.com
Mastodon is open source, distributed social networking software. It’s most similar to Twitter in terms of core functionality, but what sets it apart is the ability to setup your own instance or join one that fits your interests. Mastodon takes advantage of ActivityPub, allowing users on the service to follow others from separate instances.
And because ActivityPub isn’t Mastodon-specific, you can follow users from instances that aren’t even built on Mastodon. It’s compatible with Pixelfed, PeerTube, Pleroma, and more — as long as it uses ActivityPub, you can follow it through Mastodon, at least in my experience.
My first exposure to Mastodon was in 2018, but it was short-lived. I made the mistake of trying to rebuild the same social graph I had on Twitter and no one stuck around for very long — including me. It wasn’t until I started exploring Twitter alternatives earlier this year that I started using Mastodon as my primary social network.
I could have just revived my account on Mastodon.social, but one of the biggest draws for me was the ability to have my own instance. I setup LibertyNode.net in July, invited my wife and sister-in-law to join, and haven’t looked back.
If you’re interested in giving Mastodon a go, you could join one of the bigger instances like Mastodon.social or Mastodon.online. Alternatively, you could use Instances.social to try and find one that’s focused more on your interests.
Once you have an account, you’ll probably want some cool people to follow. Your instance’s profile directory as well as the local and federated feeds are a good place to start. Just keep in mind, because of the open source nature of the software and the ability for anyone to setup an instance, just like the web in general, there is some degree of unsavoriness. A good instance will be moderated regularly to prevent the most egregious content, but just a fair warning that some could slip through.
In terms of specific people to follow, though, I’d be more than happy to have you as a follower — you can find my personal account at @mike@libertynode.net and Initial Charge’s account at @initialcharge@libertynode.net. And here are some of the people I’ve especially enjoyed on Mastodon recently:
You shouldn’t feel stuck just following people that are native to ActivityPub, though. BirdsiteLive is self-host-able bridge between Twitter and Mastodon. I use this for a couple dozen people or so that don’t yet have a presence on an ActivityPub-compatible service.
You can use the main BirdsiteLive instance, but I would recommend looking for other, smaller instances that aren’t quite as saturated. Distributing your follows across multiple instances will help prevent Twitter from shutting it down through rate limiting or some other mechanism.
Beyond that, there are a handful of other tools I use that interact with Mastodon:
As it stands now, there is some political polarization on the Mastodon and that may get worse if the upcoming Truth Social decides to federate. But that same polarization exists in many other aspects of our lives now, so it isn’t a unique problem. However, unlike other social networks, the distributed nature of Mastodon could help to prevent some of the more toxic behavior that the polarization leads to on Twitter, Facebook, and others.
Each instance can have its own policies regarding moderation and can decide what instances to federate with or not. This allows communities to setup a firewall from the type of behavior that they would like to discourage. And if you don’t like one instance’s policies, you can find another instance or even setup your own. I used Cloudron on Linode to install and manage Mastodon, it was a pretty easy process.
I haven’t needed to do any instance blocking on mine yet, but there’s only a few of us on it and we’ve only been using it since July. I’m glad the option is there if I ever need it.
I’m quite bullish on Mastodon and ActivityPub in general. I think it’s the kind of software that churches, bands, and any other group should take into consideration if they want to establish a place to congregate online. And I very well may be doing some of this myself.
There isn’t an Apple-focused Mastodon instance that I’m aware of and having something like that might encourage some of my Twitter buddies to give it a try. I can’t say for certain whether I’ll set one up, but it’s on my radar. And if anyone out there is interested in collaborating on something like this, let me know.
There’s about a quarter-of-a-million monthly active users on Mastodon, based on the instances known to Mastodon.social. It’s no Twitter or Facebook, but that’s a pretty sizable number considering the lack of major investors or marketing.
➝ Source: blog.joinmastodon.org
