A federated internet archive, I’m wondering whether I should build it myself. With so many journalists being banned for reporting the gaza genocide we need more ways to combat censorship.
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An application that would make donating to FOSS projects, especially GPL-licensed works (or at least: those not trying to cater to corporations) in desperate need of support, effortless. In that: a periodic budget can be determined, time spent actively using applications is tracked, an application’s userbase is taken into consideration (as their cumulative income may eat too much into budgets: possibly better spent supporting smaller projects), and personal preference can be given (including an option to filter license types); as to rank the applications based on perceived value, and fraction the budget accordingly.
I would be happy to support projects that I actively, or to a lesser degree, rely on. But the process of taking all steps required to support a project is simply too manual, and outright unmanageable, when trying to take into account all system components. I really want the incentives to shift from MIT to GPL, so that maintainers don’t effectively end up being controlled by corporate paychecks; and are rather supported by individual end users. This should in theory make FOSS more resilient to any future restrictions to source access, which could hamper the long-term parity of forks, seeking to strip anti-features.
I’d like a federated ecosystem for game mods that uses torrents for file downloads to reduce server load. Something to act as a safe haven in case NexusMods enshittifies. It’d also allow more diverse sets of rules through servers, so you could have versions of Nexus, LoversLab, etc. all sharing a framework instead of everything running smoothly for one and not the others.
Plus, NexusMods have really dropped the ball with regards to permissions. Their default permissions are set up so that if you’re a mod author, other authors need to ask you for permission to use your mod as a dependency. Not just crediting you and linking to your mod, but asking permission beforehand. I don’t see how anyone can look an that and not see it as insanely hypocritical
i wish cars had more of a conventional computer, more sensors, modular expansion, and completely open.
you would see some pretty cool shit.
There is a project called Open ECU that does some of this but I think its scope is very limited
A high-quality FOSS version of Reaper (DAW) that can use the expensive audio production plugins. Right now that’s where all Linux DAWs run short - the best plugins are only for Windows, or for Cubase. Running them through some VSTi Linux wrapper never quite works correctly.
Maybe something like After Effects with all the plugins and tools. Right now the software itself exists in Kdenlive, just not all the addons people have written for After Effects.
But pretty much everything else I use is already FOSS.
first came a not of federated services to mind, not that’s really necessary foss. but what would be cool is foss firmware or really open api for any hardware you buy… Home “smart” appliances, printers, cars infotainment system, etc, etc
foss nas software that isn’t corporate controlled or vibe coded (looking at you true nas and open media vault)
how did open media vault get lumped into this?
I want FOSS camera firmware so bad. imagine what we could do with them then! obviously that why it’s not foss…
I’m surprised there’s no foss camera firmware
In case of your are looking for a cinema camera there’s cinepi . I use cinemate for my camera, but there are multiple projects using cinepi
There is also magic Lantern for some Cannon cameras
magic lantern sounds awesome, though very finicky. I‘m playing around with CHDK which is similar in its functionality, but targeting a different set of canon cameras, and it’s far less capable. I’d just love to be able to reuse my awesome canon RF lenses for other things, but that‘ll require a reverse engineering effort. I know that some people did that for canon EF, and mby one could build off that, but it’s probably a lot of effort still. I’ve seen the cinepi, and i find it very intriguing, but i don’t wanna have to spend lots of money on new lenses, because those i got already were too expensive, and if i go cheap (if thats possible at all), i might be loosing features i like. Still, awesome concept. I’ll have to try it eventually!
unfortunately the max length of comments is to limited to answer this question… ;)
Yet you did just one phrase that said nothing. If you got such a list, by all means, fill out the max comment length. Feel free even to make a second comment if needed!
A foss decentralized marketplace that costed very little or nothing at all to small stores to participate, to fight back against amazon and others
It would be nice to have the same, but for uber-like drivers
Flohmarkt is probably the closest. Basically federated ebay.
Thanks, I will check it
The software for that is relatively easy
Getting people to use it will be next to impossible. Without a strong marketing budget, it would take decades at beat before even a small percentage of people would be using it (see Linux desktop) as its all word of mouth and initially only the nerds in the know would be using it for years
True, but if we think about it, the “nerds in the know” can be a strong niche for some kind of businesses
I would like to see such a thing. But I would add API for accessing it with a dedicated app. Allows for better performance and features like filtering across multiple shops at once an even allows integration in scripts.
I think what you want is a CO OP. It would be nice if the software was FOSS of course.
But a coop would make things like uber type services be worker owned.
Also members can make decisoons.
Also food delivery.
In Finland, there used to be “pizza-online” which was really just a directory and ordering system for restaurants that already did delivery themselves.
They took a very small comission, as the site didn’t really do anything except connect restaurant and customer (and provide a review platform). For a long time, they didn’t even have an app.
You’d log in, select a restaurant, browse their menu and place an order. The order goes to the restaurant, and after that the site’s job was done.
It was massively succesful. Every hole in-the-wall pizza place was on there. Finding good food was easy and cheap, and the restaurants reached more customers than ever. And the platform including reviews led to competition in not just price, but quality.
Then pizza-online sold to foodora, and they got shut down, and participating restaurant were no longer allowed to deliver themselves, and the cut taken by the platform skyrocketed.
In Finland, there used to be “pizza-online” which was really just a directory and ordering system for restaurants that already did delivery themselves.
Something like that would be very nice too!
Then pizza-online sold to foodora, and they got shut down, and psrticipating restaurant were no longer allowed to deliver themselves, and the cut taken by the platform skyrocketed.
Oh no…
Wish Linux on mobile was just as mature as on desktop.
To be fair, it’s not much of linux’s fault, but mostly due to shitty hardware restrictions and proprietary drivers
due to shitty hardware restrictions
regulatory restrictions?
Yeah, from what I understand, hardware manufacturers need to ensure that no one uses the mobile chip to send on reserved frequencies. And the way they typically do that, is with a proprietary, undocumented driver for the mobile chip. So, you basically need to reverse engineer that for each mobile chip, to be able to make calls and such…
Yes because of isps
Same. I’ve got an FLX1s, and I’d love to recommend it to people, but it’s just too buggy. It’s got a lot of potential, and I’m still excited about the project, but I have to reboot the phone a couple of times a day because it just keeps buggin out.
Reviews in OpenStreetMap, so that google maps can have a real competitor.
Its not FOSS, but I use to use foursquare for years because of how good it was at finding good restaurants / things to do in a new city. Now that its shut down, there’s no real alternative that comes close.
Well at least googles reviews are now useless, so there is no competition there either.
As an openstreetmap contributor, I wish this so much. Every time I add places in there I ask myself if I’m doing something really useful anf if it’s being actually used by anyone, or if I’m just wasting my time while thinking I’m doing a relevant thing because I know absolutely no one that uses it. Actually, the main osm site doesn’t even show details about businesses, but just the icon
Just wanted to add, when I’m travelling I very much enjoy it when a town has up to date cafes/restaurants. That’s why my highest priority when I contributing to OSM is adding cafe/restaurant information.
Wherever you are, your contributions are very well appreciated! I live in a very small town and use OSM. Idk who mapped this place, but having maps away from Google in such a small place makes me happy. Again, wherever you are, you are contributing to a cause that can help free people from big tech monopolies and actually advances human society forever.
You are part of the reason people like me who don’t have time to contribute to such efforts can use these apps anyways. Part of the reason adoption is possible. Part of the reason OSM can grow beyond just whatever you’re documenting.
Thank you, really. <3
I’m a sporadic/infrequent openstreetmap contributor, too - although I’m not second-guessing these contributions. Useless or not, I do use OSM all the time personally, so reason stands somebody before me did a good job and helped me a lot.
Admittedly, some of the people who use OSM around me use it because at a certain moment I’ve explained them the advantages. (I live in Europe and people frequently use other modes of transport besides the car, so OSM is legit frequently the better choice.)
I’m from Brazil, and the people around here love to swim and bathe in big tech, unfortunately. I tried talking about osm with a lot of people, but everyone keep using google no matter what :(
But recently, I have been giving less attention to adding businesses and more into other things related to navigation, which I know are used by some
Personally, I exercise the “growth mentality” here. Meaning, I don’t compare with a target value such as “I’ve converted 10% of the Earth population to OSM”. Instead, I compare with OSM as it was 6 months ago. This approach gives peace of mind and steady progress for me personally.
There are some people working on this and proposing some options.
IMO, as someone who regularly edits OSM, the maps need much more info and basic editing before reviews. I had to add many of my fave restaurants. Forget about reviews when the restaurants aren’t even on there. Just saying. Maybe as it gets more users.
(Tangent: I was just in a foreign country where I didn’t have much mobile data. But I had downloaded OSM maps beforehand and made edits beforehand for my trip. The only downside is that OSMand doesn’t update their maps very often in some places so I almost never got to use all my edits. Overall though the offline maps were very helpful for navigation, etc.)
If you have OSMand, you would be interested to know about the Live Updates feature, which lets you download newer versions of maps on top of your existing downloaded maps, kind of like a software patch. The feature states that you can download map updates as recent as one hour, but I’ve personally seen the “patches” reflect the changes as soon as 15-20 minutes into upload.
To view live updates, assuming you didn’t heavily customise your OSMand interface:
- Open the drawer through the hamburger icon button on the bottom left corner of the screen
- Select ‘Maps & Resources’ from the drawer
- Select ‘Updates’ tab from the tab list below the ‘Maps & Resources’ title bar on the top of the screen
- Select ‘Live Updates’ just below the ‘Device Memory’ graph
- Enable the toggle below the ‘OsmAnd Live’ title bar on the top of the screen
- Select a map of your choosing among the list displayed under ‘Available Maps’
- Select the ‘Update now’ button in the bottom sheet to manually update the map and wait for a moment
Once the steps have been followed, you show see something like this below the title of the bottom sheet:
“Updated: Today - <current time>. Includes OSM changes made until <current timestamp>.”
If you see this, you can go back to the map and verify that the changes have been included without downloading the entire map of the location from scratch. The “patches” are only a few MBs at most and you can set the live updates to happen automatically on an hourly, daily or weekly basis.
I was recently in a different country and two of us were navigating an area that had been built up over the last three years. Only OSM had the streets and buildings. Google was way behind and would have been useless.
So for those people editing, thank you, it actually matters.
I don’t know if there’s such thing but i wish there was a foss alternative for street view too
I also use Mapillary, I guess it is similar to Panoramax, cause it has the app and it’s well done.
Mapillary has the best coverage compared to the alternatives but it’s owned by Meta. It’s still much more open compared to Google but I figured the ownership is worth noting.
It’s nowhere close to Street view’s quality or quantity, but there is Panoramax
There’s Instant Street View, tho it’s just I guess a wrapper (???) for Google SV.
from the About button:
Simply type an address or place name to instantly see it in Google Street View.
Holy crap I forgot about four square!
You can always check AlternativeTo for FOSS (and non-US based) software alternatives.
I’ve found myself using this a whole lot. It really is great for finding foss and / or non-US alternatives.
A federated internet archive, I’m wondering whether I should build it myself. With so many journalists being banned for reporting the gaza genocide we need more ways to combat censorship.
I know lots of people are crypto-reactionaries… But there are like dozens of these projects in the (primarily open source) crypto space. The basic idea seems to be that a crypto-archive uses a blockchain for hosting and a cryptocurrency to fund it. I don’t know how successful these projects have been. Here are a few quick examples from a search:
Using a blockchain to store any data beyond a little bit of text e.g. images and videos(hence why NFTs are stored as links to where an image was hosted, rather than the image file data itself living on the blockchain) is just incredibly inefficient and impractical however you slice it
A PeerTube like architecture would be far better(faster etc)
My main concern would be how to prevent tampering with archived pages - the owner of the second most popular site after Wayback Machine, archive.is, has been known to modify the content of archived pages for petty personal reasons. And without the sanctity of archives, the whole exercise loses its value as proof of records of the past.
maybe that would be a rare case of some blockchain-like structure being actually useful? But without any kind of tokenization, of course
yeah this may be an actual use case
An open source 2D animation suite that can compete with Toon Boom Harmony. I bought an (expensive) perpetual license for Toon Boom Harmony years ago, and then they moved to a ridiculously overpriced monthly subscription model and deactivated my license, essentially ripping me off for hundreds of dollars. So ever since then I’ve wanted something to come along and put them out of business.
What about OpenToonz? AFAIK Studio Ghibli used it
Last time I checked it seemed like it wasn’t quite there yet in terms of features, but admittedly that was a few years ago so I’ll have to give it another look. Thanks for the reminder!
I dream of a Bottom Up Logistics software that would enable us to thoughtfully connect and eventually scale grassroots resource sharing efforts. If Farmer Bertha had unsold crops she could list them. Communities in need of certain resources would indicate this. People could commit the use of their time, equipment, etc. The software would do the work of calculating efficient routes and assignments to get everything where it was needed.
My inspiration is the various pet rescue consortiums I’ve found in every city I’ve lived in. People crossing the country to pick up a single dog from rural alabama to bring it to a shelter in california. People pooling money to buy trucks specifically so volunteers can cart needy dogs around. They don’t use fancy logistics but they make it clear to me there’s a lot of uncaptured goodwill out there, and I think that given an organized way to engage, people would jump at the chance to participate in scaling a sharing economy based on empathy for our fellow creatures.
