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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: March 10th, 2024

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  • If you want to use it for fun, someone suggested a Luanti server, and you can also find a lot of really easy to set up game servers using a tool like LinuxGSM. Most games they support require very minimal configuration if any.

    If you want to use it for something educational, depending on the age range of the kids, you might be able to use it to teach computing skills. For example, you could set it up as a pubnix/tilde where kids can get shell access, basically a remote connection to the command line, and you or someone can set up some services for them. Pubnixes tend to provide things like chat over IRC, something like a forum maybe over something a lot like Usenet, a webserver where users can host their own webpage they had to design themselves, less commonly but good for the kids would be voice chat with something like Mumble, they often have an array of programming tools, collaborative tools like calendars or something akin to Google Docs… It could be a good place for technically inclined kids to learn about computers, servers, Linux, programming, basic web development, etc. All the services could be kept internal to keep strangers away from the kids, maybe remote access strictly through accounts only given in person to members. If you’re interested in something like that, I might be able to help. Feel free to DM me or check out the Tildeverse to get an idea of what sort of things tildes and pubnixes offer their users.


  • True, but unless that new group is willing to step up and invest in physical device production to directly compete, I don’t think it’s going to be the same. The type of people buying a dedicated NAS with a custom OS are looking for as close to a plug and play solution ad they can get. They’re less inclined to reinstall the OS on their new NAS, and the market is probably going to favor the now proprietary version TrueNAS sells, especially if they take steps to make it difficult to replace the OS on their devices.


  • Yeah, no, they couldn’t do it to the kernel. But that’s not really the interesting part of their product. It’s all the software that they as a company hold the copyright to. If they solely hold copyright on all their own code or if they have permission to relicense from their contributors, they can take any or all of their products closed source, and when I say “their products” I specifically mean the things they as a company produce, which they built on top of open source projects that they don’t control.


  • This probably doesn’t apply to TrueNAS, but technically, it’s possible to close a GPL project. You’d need the permission of every last contributor to relicense their code, or they’d have to rewrite all the code they can’t get relicensed (e.g., someone said no or already died), or they could do it if they never accepted any pull requests because they would then be the sole copyright holder and have the freedom to relicense at their whim.

    I can’t vouch for TrueNAS, but most open source projects accept pull requests because free labor, whether they’re corporate projects or not, so I’d assume they can’t freely relicense without a hell of a headache, so yeah, it’s probably staying open for the foreseeable future.




  • But does it really constitute doing business in that country when you do everything your home country? Your servers, your workers, your ISP, your bank accounts, your currency coming in and out of those accounts, the companies buying your ad space, all completely out of their jurisdiction, but since someone within that jurisdiction reached out and made requests to my web server, I’m obligated to abide by their laws? It doesn’t seem tenable. It effectively means that any commercial website must comply with all laws anywhere in the world or geoblock outside their intended range.