Being believable means also being against anti-emancipatory services like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp and so many more. Building own, decentralized infrastructure and start handle with strict principle and in respect for each other, in respect for empathy and humaneness. Just don't following some straight capitalistic thoughts and motivations, no companies at all and stop seeing some leadership in some "big" names. Yes, people giving ideas. But this doesn't mean that those people are seen free from any kind of criticism. We have enough problems with meritocratic procedures and way of behaving in so many groups into free, libre software and projects itself.

You don't know what this means? Speaking out simple: Only ones doing something for the project have the right to speak and the more you do, the more rights you could get. Sounds unfair? Well, yes it is completely unfair and also inhumane. Because people are declacred as "untouchable", so they can do everything, also harassing, bullying and insulting others without any consequences. They do it because they are declared "untouchable" and "sensitive" for further progress. You think the deletion of hatred from centralized (anti-)social networks help? No, it doesn't. In fact there is no difference within centralized or decentralized platforms. What can help? It is up to you and it is up to me to speak up! And that's another point of being believable. Seeing inhumane hatred, seeing all the kind of prejudices and the problems also we've got today. Speak up against meritocracies and give everyone the same right. There is no difference and stop following wordings of others just because they've done some ideas or deeds. Do it for your own, hear for the ones being silent and thrown out of society, because they are declared "not fitting" or "being weak". That's disgusting what our global society is capable like all the people dying of arrogance, ignorance and hatred! And ask questions as even behind some masquerade of "peace" more hatred could come up. Be always critical, starting with yourself.

Being believable means also being into the respect of freedom for everyone (who is in respect for living in peace and empathy) and not only the respect of the mass. Individuality is one thing, the reasoning for building software for own needs is the other. Yes, one argument being used is: You are not the only person of the world and so there are others and their favors to respect.

Yes, that's a good and valid point. But most time used other way around making questionsable decisions and ethics within development irrelevant. So overloaded interfaces and monolithic projects like systemd are made valid throughout this argumentation. Those projects made even with others respecting those freedom of choice and being built with different options onto different environments, based on the needs of the users. The argumentation of pragmatism is the vague pointout of security of the mass. Browsers based on XUL are in the minority and therefore more questionable than those used by the majority. Well, could be and of course having more people into testing is absolutely needed. But as mentioned before: Vague argumentation as those "majority" and used browsers for example implement enough anti-features. Where is the difference? Where to begin with trust? And why always using this "principle" of the so-called majority, of the masses?

Yes, we are not "alone" and people using Hyperbola have other interests as people using Arch Linux for example. Well? And what next? There are enough projects like systemd, pulseaudio and more ignoring the freedom of choice, as they are also included into the distributions as the only reliable option. Where is the so-called "freedom" now? And besides: XUL-based browsers had a long time to be tested as Mozilla dropped this out with versions after 52. So either helping out with testing as possibility or just stop with those argumentations as "bloatware" is clear defined - argumentation for "bloat" being vague and subjective, this is not true at all. And in the end the discussion slip away from the ground we need: Information is one thing. But do we need all those websites with videos, animations and interactive JavaScript executed directly? Where is the information? Hidden in all those blinking animations? And just because the "mass" (whatever this means in the end), the "majority" mean to have this as absolute base: Is this the base for reasonable decisions? I don't think so.

Annotation: And yes, guess what ... there is NO unlimited freedom as pointed out in earlier posts. Technology cannot be viewed from a neutral point and is therefore always following some ideology. And we cannot use our "own personal freedom" to bring up restrictions for others, for their dignity or even for their lifes. Hatred is disgusting and a dangerous path. So keep this in mind when writing about "freedom", because this has also restrictions for everyone's good. Personal decisions have consequences: Do you try using real free, libre soft- and hardware? Do you try making more pragmatic choices? Or do you completely ignore idealism? All of this is a personal choice and all of this can lead to consequences. Use your freedom wisely to protect others, their life and their dignity. A living without fear and not being insulted for sexual orientation, skin colour, origin and religion one human being has got! A free culture on a global level to be formed.

Short comment on conspiracy ideologies (no, not theories as this wording is only for scientific support and not for hatemongering): Being believable means also to look behind the curtain and seeing human beings as exactly those, not to make differences between some kind of "the ones below against the ones above". You can see the difference? To get this more clear: Having the beliefs that there are always some kind of "evil masterplans" does not make anything better. In fact this is getting even more worse: First words and after that what? Deeds? Revolution? Think again: Revolutions most time are not peaceful and a bloody mess for many, hurting and killing. Take care of your own principles instead searching for "evil masterplans" before or behind some "hidden doors" - surprise: there are no "big plans". And there is the difference between being strict and being upside down, far away from rational thoughts.

You don't like "Bill Gates"? Okay, but on what base? Do you know him? Or do you just tend to rule from some articles, where writers tend to press their views onto you and me? Stop that. A good article is giving you and me a chance for own thoughts and own researches, not to take just one view. So questionize the way: Can I as a person make some final rule about "Bill Gates" just because he is characterized as "the evil in person" these days? No I cannot and I will not! I just can see the deeds and wordings from Microsoft, the company he founded back the days. So what? Do I believe Microsoft is "good"? No, I don't. So stop also give me and others only two options: In or out? That's risky, that's dangerous. Being believable is also about making mistakes, seeing in between and choose some way for a reformation. First things first: Not believing some simplified messages on anti-social platforms, because they are to be characterized on these ways when there is no further possibility for own researches and own conclusions. So again the question: Do I "like" Bill Gates as a person? Cannot answer this because I don't know him. Do I like what he is doing? Of course not always, but where is the difference? I want open medications for everyone, the far more open to be created the better. No patents at last, no licenses or something else. The idealism itself as I want "capitalism" to be destroyed and reformed to another system with democratic inbound. But as I've mentioned: Any utopian view can help, as dreamers can reach out for the sky - won't reach this in the near future, but better to believe on this as to search for "evil masterplans". And no: Being idealistic doesn't make you or me blind for "evil deeds" or better the consequences of arrogance and ignorance. In fact those are also two different points being. But this is another story for another posting here in the thread. I think it is important to make a clear statement as everyone is capable doing own searches and researches. And to replicate antisemite stereotypes back from darkest of history is nothing to do for real as it ends always really, really, really bad (nice description without any further wording). It is disgusting to do this and better to stand against it, stand for clear own principles. Do your research and just don't take only my words: Even though "we below against them above" is exactly that and nothing more. After "them" are "destroyed" there will be always another "them" and some people declare themselves to this position, again "for the greater good" - and all are living humans with own thoughts and stories behind, respect that in the first place, of course with viewing on what is developing and not play your own court. Certainly anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices - meaning exactly conspiracy ideologies: Just learn from books or even movies, hear the warnings for this dangerous path as the slur thoughts for "evil masterplans" will never stop and something is behind every edge - no, but people try to search only for the bad and even more bad instead to create alternatives or discuss solutions. The chance is there to stop that before it gets on rolling and the viscious circle will never stops after getting on rolling.

The platform itself is made being addictive in many ways, but even if there are alternatives people tend to use the most used platform because of missed out content. And I know about this problem as I tried with an own installation of Mediadrop. The site was visited and there were uploads besides mine, but people tend more to consume instead to create. Not a problem in general, but I see no further possibility to get this turned as even learning material for children is to be found just there, even though knowledge has to be free and accessible for everyone without boundaries to those services. I hope people get more into this and I want to help building alternatives - not with Mediadrop as there is Flash needed for uploading content.

But no one is weird when rejecting a service with reasoning. It is just more of the same: Convenience!

I think it is time to write about more political sights regarding "free, libre soft- and hardware". The first point to come: The so-called liberal view of soft- and hardware. Combined with the question: Do we have to accept proprietary software being part of our daily life? Even with this standalone question you can see the problem from within coming up.

Yes, I can accept parts being proprietary, but do I have to accept this one without further questioning and searching for alternatives? Even though I personal like Coreboot very much, there are firmware-blobs for most usecases (Link to the corresponding git-repository). Here is the answer: No, on a final point I don't have to accept that for the time being, besides I can live with a temporary solution in general. So what's about this so-called liberal view? And why is there some really disrespectful wording as "free software nazi" on the road? Well, more views to come up here: First I think the wording is not fitting, in no way. Yes, they may be some people trying to press their views about "free, libre soft- and hardware" on others, being some kind of missionary regarding that. So this makes them nothing more than "oppressive missionaries" - yeah, most to be found within the historical meaning of the word itself. But a "free software nazi"? Completely wrong besides as it is ignoring the context of what exactly nationalsocialism or fascism means and describing people on this way is nevertheless a wild and hateful mixture in general, a very disgusting one.

As I have this liberal view in mind it could be better described as another facet of the known pragmatism, the known convenience. Some quotes from that region and mindset I had in discussions in the past:

"A video-streaming service? Free? For what reasoning? There is YouTube!"

"Okay, WhatsApp is dealing with my data, but hey I've got the surrounding system most time free without Google."

"It is so complex and time-consuming to build alternatives, let's try to focus on that one's existing, even if they are not free as in freedom."

"To carry news about free, libre software back into the proprietary services is kind of important, as people being in decentralized and open systems don't be convinced at all."

I could write down so much more quotes, but the so-called liberal view stays the same: Being just pragmatic. And it is not about seeing grey shades between a black and white side of positioning. It is about the question where I as an individual person and human being can see myself. Yes, I can have wrong information and built therefore a perspective on that. But therefore reflection is needed (which is also done throughout threads and discussions like this one here, being transparent and open for everyone). That has nothing to do being liberal or in some way conservative as it is about do the complete free soft- and hardware is mixed up into being more and more without meaning. And confronting people bringing up the argument "free software nazi" is already needed as everyone has an own perspective, but it is not about being oppressed as this designation besides being disrespectful and relativizing towards cruel, inhuman ideologies completely ignores the balance of power. The balance between free, libre and proprietary software, while last one is just more common even when some parts are based on projects under a permissive, free license. As it is more common these days being more into some kind of "turning neck"-tactics, dealing with some identity instead of clear idealistic principles for all human beings, straight forward arguments and strict principles are seen as some kind of harassment, radicale or even more worse (demonstrated through the one mentioned wording "free software nazi"). When this is some kind of joke, it's a really bad one - as I have already described regarding the incorrect classification of historical events of the inhuman ideology. So I'm able to see the shades of grey, of course. And I can make exceptions. But there are borders we should not accept at all!

And just to note:

Nevertheless Libreboot is under active development. Yes there was no stable release since 2016. But what is the meaning about that when there is the search for "always new" on the other side? And what does this have to do with the personality of Leah as founder - found also in some argumentations? Exactly nothing as it is also disgusting to construct some slurs about personal problems as part of this so-called liberal view - where are the shades now? It is up to everyone to decide personal and not to make such shallow argumentation flaws.

We should talk about inequality and the systematics behind: The systematics behind mean exactly that there are different approaches having a "Status Quo" conserved at minimum and having just some progression without ideology. But I've already pointed out: There cannot be any difference as even the will to be neutral from ideology is an ideology!

Yes, that's a strange sentence to read for some at the first time. But let me tell you: To reject any "ideology" is in fact the way getting from values, from a humanistic approach and just do what the individuum wants to do. You know how to call this: Egoism. And from my point that's not what freedom and free, libre soft- and hardware should be about. We have to approach this as people doing this engagement just for their own ego. Yes, they can do that. But when a project-team recognize this those people should not be left being some "heroes" for them and should also reflect about meroticratic views within their projects itself, where individuals and groups forming around them can do whatever they want to do. Power is able to show the real face of people, of individuals, of us human beings and this can get ugly very fast. And that's one facette of inequality, next up rising and being all-time there are even more relevant as disgusting within the same time: Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia. They are all transported throughout power, marginalize others and being part of harassment, therefore also part of meritocratic systems and followed up within free software-communities and projects. Acknowledge about those mechanism, those systematic surpression because hatred can never be any solution. Making one statement here because black lives matter - all time, no difference to be made and in respect for human beings. You find this a little bit too far? Ask yourself: Living in peace and in freedom is the highest value for every human, so should there be any difference? No, there shouldn't but in fact it does for now. Everyone can do something about it as we do our own here of course, as many engaged people doing this. Solidarity and empathy are absolutely relevant and the base for actions. Try it out, be against the called mechanisms for inequality and confront yourself, reflect yourself for being believable as from inequality in rights there is coming more really bad and we can learn that from history of mankind as people are dying when ignorance and arrogance is common sense.

So technology, information and software same with hardware are never neutral, never free from ideologies. Let's give them a meaning to this, a meaning with humanism, for dignity and respect towards humans surpressed. And if you as individual, dear reader, see "no problems at all", think again and think about another mechanism: Being privileged as this is more of the same to change nothing and nothing in general, conserving the "Status Quo" (full with hatred and prejudices, ignorance and arrogance in common) at best or even making it more worse than ever. Instead sharing privileges, sharing power and reflect your own. Raise your voice for people living in dignity and same rights. And when discussions make no more sense - trust me you will see that as we all can do with a little reflection: Use your privleges to give others a voice, standing up for and with them, saying clearly No, here is the line and you won't get any closer!. We can have a shield, with clear principles and hope. And solidariy can be protection, coming up for action and standing up in peace with strict principles as there is no further crossing and place for hatred in any form.

You know about very risky way some so-called "free projects" take these days? The way into the "Cloud"? Being defined as software as a service is nothing more as definitely renting some "software" for a defined amount of time, nothing more and nothing less. So why exactly do free projects choose first a proprietary hosting service for their codebase and after that enhance their code for supporting providers like Amazon? Well, it's about the so-called userbase. But there is not further usecase for "Cloud-computing". Remember: There is no cloud, just the computer-systems of other people!

Another opposite of being believable and the reasoning why NOT EVERY so-called "open-source" project is in fact the exact helping hand.

Coreboot and Libreboot are both still better than the standard backdoored bios.  So there's that.

Also, I wonder if  libreboot has any backdoors that arent known about, if not, can coreboot be built the same way?

Just a thought.

regardless, it is way better than the non-free bios.  I just hope that something better comes out. MNT Reform looks somewhat better, but I am not sure yet,, and then there is this balthazar.space website + the below:

https://github.com/balthazar-space/balthazar

If a laptop is formed from this, and yes I do agree they should ditch github or in my opinion, at least use it as a non-mirror. But yeah, its a possibility for my interest.

And so it goes on: Not enough problems for free, libre software and corresponding projects. It is also about being finally reduced being some kind of irrelevant as the authoritarian administration of current US-president Donald Trump is up to replace people within the organization Open Technology Fund (OTF). This is a political movement and there are possibilities for a complete change back towards proprietary technologies instead getting even more freedom. Read more about that here. There it is: Freedom of speech? Maybe, but not for everyone and of course, only for payments. This is not any kind of dystopian future, it is here and now. This is how pragmatism is just taking away the free, libre soft- and hardware has reached until now: Because people don't care enough and when they get a possible reaction it is just too late. Yeah, capitalism risks everything just for maximizing the profit and outcome of money. Projects like NoScript or Tor are at risk. And to speak about trust for them: That's another story. Having only proprietary toolsets with proprietary licensing is a complete step backwards. Democracy is something to fight for, every day again.

And remember: Just to repeat the phrase "being believable" just doesn't revert lies or make you and me the opposite about liars. Instead this is the illusion and the trick itself: Don't thinking to criticize just a "system", question your own position and your decisions. Reflect yourself as it just to easy speaking about a "system", some failure within structures. Within this thread you can find many examples where others have failed until now. But what's your story about it? And what's mine? The internal message is that this is all about us and our will to change. But not with some "free software" itself only, not with being free from ideology and not with the big revolution to come. Get a book with history out and read it: Most time to change one "system" resulted into other cruel deeds, unspeakable suffering combined with the so-called hope for a better tomorrow, literally war.

The first reflection: We are all liars in some ways. But to see that, we can change this and just not call for revenge or to attack some "system", which is not to repair. Free soft- and hardware, free culture itself results from respect, from empathy for each other, with understanding and without hatred, one of the extreme feelings we humans can have and it is the destructive one. To remember that we don't need differences or classes to seperate, that we have the same rights and privileges to share. That is free culture for being believable, without any boundaries! As said always again: Perhaps utopian, but a dream we all can try to work on, every day again.

Being believable for free culture means also using really free, inclusive programming languages with permissive, libre licensing. So what about Jitsi and others using Java? Well? The reasoning for removing Java and the OpenJDK is documented here regarding Hyperbola. So where is exactly the "freedom"? Yes, projects are fixed onto a language, that's absolutely okay. But neither Java nor Mono or Rust are in fact in some ways "okay": They all have problems regarding licensing in the first place. But it seems most distributions don't give much about principles: Better having in some way "free packages" and it is not really important if those have further problems later on. Sorry, but that's contrary towards being believable and being active into "free culture".