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   Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)'s status on Saturday, 18-Oct-2025 19:03:54 JST Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot

   this is how we do things in leah town

   https://codeberg.org/libreboot/lbwww/commit/b01b2baececffb2868910ce867b14de59e45f24c

   i also set +r on the channel - require nickserv account to join. making one requires reading instructions on libera.chat

   i now predict the quality of participation will increase. this is in pre-emptive self defense for when x86 chromebooks are in libreboot by next release, because i expect a lot of silly windows users will want to use windows with libreboot for some reason.

   this is an inherently elitist policy, and it shall stand.

   • Embed this notice
     Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)'s status on Saturday, 18-Oct-2025 19:06:45 JST Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot

     in reply to

     however, the documentation will link to a bunch of resources for such people, including utilities for installing drivers and such, and copy a lot of documentation from other sources e.g. chrultrabook - but without linking to any resources other than libreboot's own pages.

     this way, a windows user seeing x86 chromebook/tianocore in libreboot won't know any other resource - except we put up blocks against their ever asking for help.

     i may even shut down the subreddit. make it private. we'll see.

   • Embed this notice
     Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)'s status on Saturday, 18-Oct-2025 19:10:00 JST Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot

     in reply to

     but i will *also* be heavily promoting libreboot for chromebooks, specifically to attract windows users - but then systematically shut them out, deny them any real possibility of actually getting set up and running.

     the documentation will be *just* plausible ennough that they're like oh, ok, now i can use windows. but nope.

     and then the documentation will very aggressively promote free softtware ideology, and strongly recommend linux/bsd.

     i'll be promoting free software ideology so damn hard.

   • Embed this notice
     Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)'s status on Saturday, 18-Oct-2025 19:12:49 JST Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot

     in reply to

     and the linux/bsd instructions will be easy, complete with pictures, and lots and lots of useful information.

     why bother with anything else?

     this is what the chrultrabook and mrchromebox projects do wrong, socially. they're kind to windows users, even benevolent. but windows users don't give a shit about free software, or what you want to do. windows users are the most parasitic of all; they just want to play some games on their chromebooks.

     we should only be promoting free operating systems.

   • Embed this notice
     leah nicole (littlemisssynth@mastodon.online)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 10:40:12 JST leah nicole

     in reply to

     @libreleah respectfully, no, this idea is stupid, this is how you create masses of people with hatred for libreboot and libre software, and by extension linux/bsd. i won't say you should spoon-feed them, but hostility won't convert them, treat windows as an afterthought sure, heck even discourage windows and nudge towards Linux, but don't lock them out. ultimately if libreboot is code that respects your freedom, it must also respect the user's freedom to install and run non-free os's.

   • Embed this notice
     Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 10:41:32 JST Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot

     in reply to

     • leah nicole

     @littlemisssynth that's why there is going to be an entire page dedicated to installing windows. it will link to these resources:

     * information about how to reliably find and install device drivers
     * introductory information about how to use the interface in tianocore, prepare bootable usb drive, etc
     * information about what caveats to expect

     and absolutely no support

     it's the bait and switch that "open core" projects do, reversed. libreboot+windows is freedom lite. linux is freedom premium++

   • Embed this notice
     Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 10:42:27 JST Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot

     in reply to

     • leah nicole

     @littlemisssynth that's why there is going to be a guide for windows, with lectures on free software throughout, advising linux instead

     * info about how to find and install device drivers
     * introductory info about how to use the interface in tianocore, prepare bootable usb drive, etc
     * information about what caveats to expect

     and absolutely no IRC support for windows.

     it's the bait and switch that "open core" projects do, reversed. libreboot+windows is freedom lite. linux is freedom premium++

   • Embed this notice
     Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 10:45:51 JST Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot

     in reply to

     • leah nicole

     @littlemisssynth that's what the proprietary people do to us. the less well trained of us, who don't know as much, might like free software but then some slick vendor comes in and promises more stuff. and it all seems plausible. then they offer you the super premium package with absolutely no source code.

     my plan is to apply the same principle in reverse. the reader is googling how to install windows on their chromebook, so we entice them at first, and we aggressively push more freedom on them.

   • Embed this notice
     Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 10:55:26 JST Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot

     in reply to

     • leah nicole

     @littlemisssynth examples of vendors that do this:

     * oracle provides a free virtualbox, with non-free add-ons as premium - and recently started tightening that up

     * gitlab community edition versus enterprise edition (might have changed since, probably hasn't, since i last checked)

     * literally every major android vendor

     they speak free software language (open washing / ideological subversion) and then push non-free crap.

     so we will speak their language, and then push free software ideology.

   • Embed this notice
     Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 11:00:48 JST Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot

     in reply to

     • leah nicole

     @littlemisssynth yeah, so the theory, which may even seem belittling, is that windows users are low-effort users; windows makes every shiny and nice, and literally encourages you not to think. click click click, done.

     i recently saw windows 11 and realized how much worse windows is than when i last used it in 2009. it's *way more* restrictive, and controlling, in 2025.

     windows users see our language and get scared. so we will comfort them, and whisper the GNU GPL and MIT license in their ears.

   • Embed this notice
     leah nicole (littlemisssynth@mastodon.online)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 11:00:49 JST leah nicole

     in reply to

     @libreleah honestly, yeah, it makes sense for libreboot to treat libre software as the priority, as long as someone who wants windows can get a working and usable install on a libreboot chromebook, even if they are the lowest priority, and is fine, as well it's hopefully a entrypoint, one that might entice people to look past the walled garden of windows and msft, and be tempted to try the world of libre software and operating systems for more than just running a less locked down os on their pc

   • Embed this notice
     Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 11:00:56 JST Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot

     in reply to

     • leah nicole

     @littlemisssynth yeah, so the theory, which may even seem belittling, is that windows users are low-effort users; windows makes it all shiny and nice and literally encourages you not to think. click click click, done.

     i recently saw windows 11 and realized how much worse windows is than when i last used it in 2009. it's *way more* restrictive, and controlling, in 2025.

     windows users see our language and get scared. so we will comfort them, and whisper the GNU GPL and MIT license in their ears.

   • Embed this notice
     leah nicole (littlemisssynth@mastodon.online)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 11:08:35 JST leah nicole

     in reply to

     @libreleah honestly yeah, win 11 is a massive case of a few steps forwards, and a LOT of steps backwards, i had the pleasure of talking to a msft dev who works on the codebase to win 11, and under the hood, the architectural changes are well overdue, but it's all let down so much by the cloud dependency with the attempts for forced msft acc's and all the ui changes and such, to the point where i keep a surface pro 7 as a "when i need it" windows device for those 3 or so times a year i need it

   • Embed this notice
     Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 11:08:35 JST Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot

     in reply to

     • leah nicole

     @littlemisssynth well, you usually don't need windows, even when you do. if you need to use a windows application, it will often run quite nicely in wine, or it's a patch or two from running nicely in wine.

   • Embed this notice
     Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 11:11:53 JST Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot

     in reply to

     • leah nicole

     @littlemisssynth the problem with windows is it basically deskills people. all the knowledge that should be considered quite basic is advanced, for windows users. like how to use a terminal - concepts like powershell are afterthoughts, and most people don't use that.

     it does very little, but does what most people want, and so people just click click click.

     that means they're the hardest to support, because they won't understand instructions. those that try to support them often suffer burnout.

   • Embed this notice
     leah nicole (littlemisssynth@mastodon.online)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 11:15:17 JST leah nicole

     in reply to

     @libreleah i personally run more hardware using non libre code than i'd like, just because of practical reality, as i need things that suit my needs, like a n100 board for my nas because i need something that sips power and boots a generic iso, and arm boards are still a absolute mess for uefi support and booting generic iso's, or my hp elitebook 845 g7 because i need a reasonably light yet powerful laptop that can run linux and be accessible to me as a factor of it's weight and size

   • Embed this notice
     Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 11:15:17 JST Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot

     in reply to

     • leah nicole

     @littlemisssynth the difference, however, is that you are educated as to the caveats of it all. you are acutely aware of what you're doing and why.

   • Embed this notice
     leah nicole (littlemisssynth@mastodon.online)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 11:15:18 JST leah nicole

     in reply to

     @libreleah realistically most of the time the handful of windows apps i need run fine in wine or proton, i mostly keep it around for stuff like software for futzing with phones, as trying to get stuff that needs to talk to usb devices is a bit of an ass in wine, usually stuff like itunes, samsung's odin, 3u tools, and xiaomi's bootloader unlock tool, most all my other windows apps, either run on legacy hardware i keep around for fun, or has been prodded into working with wine on linux

   • Embed this notice
     Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 11:19:21 JST Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot

     in reply to

     • leah nicole

     @littlemisssynth see: https://mas.to/@libreleah/115404080088305657

     again, you already took the freedom pill. you're not the type of person i need to worry about.

   • Embed this notice
     leah nicole (littlemisssynth@mastodon.online)'s status on Monday, 20-Oct-2025 11:19:22 JST leah nicole

     in reply to

     @libreleah but even that runs a fairly libre set of software, being used as my daily with debian sid and gnome (mostly as it suits my accessibility needs and doesn't cause problems) it runs some proprietary software (mostly messaging apps), and if someone made a port of coreboot or libreboot to it, i'd be tempted to switch so i can free myself of some of the icks of the hp firmware, but i ultimately view the compromise of running non free firmware when needed as worthwhile if it suits my needs