@ THE SUBTLE DIALECTICIAN

Contact Details

e-mail: vidak@riseup.net
location: boorloo, whadjuk noongar boodjah.
age: 1991.
git repo: https://sr.ht/~vidak
substack: https://vidak.substack.com
public unix server: https://kaczynski.life
party member: Socialist Alliance.

permacomputing solar punk social ecology non-coercive only dialectical materialism

@ FRIENDLY COMPUTERS

About

My name is Blair. Computers are one of my biggest passions. I am currently studying computer science at Murdoch University.

Computer Literacy

The idea of Friendly Computers is one that I have had for a very long time. I have been very worried about the level of understanding that people have about computers. It is my belief that the level of computer literacy in my community that people have is far too low. I wanted to do something about that, so I created Friendly Computers.

This small business of mine aims to be very humble. I do not want fame or riches. All I want to do is provide reliable and safe computers at a very low cost, and provide computer literacy lessons.

Making Old Computers Fast Again

I ask people in my community to donate unwanted computers to me, which I refurbish and repair, and then repurpose to new homes at a nominal fee. Many of these computers are old, but given the state of software technology these days, this is no problem. I can make old computers run fast again. I can do this because the bedrock, or fundamental software–the “operating system”–that I install on my Friendly Computers is called “Free Software”, or “Open Source Software”.

My Philosophy: ‘Software Freedom’

Software Freedom follows a very simple philosophy. It aims to respect the freedom of the computer user. The Free Software Foundation defines free software as:

“Free software” means software that respects users’ freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.

The operating systems that large industrial corporations (like Microsoft and Apple) sell are not free software. I like to think of their software products as like a “black box”: you are permitted to use their software if you purchase it, but they will not tell you how it works, or how you yourself can change it, and, sometimes, even configure it.

The point of software freedom is that you should be able to interrogate your computer’s inner workings, to whatever level of mastery you feel comfortable. ‘Free’ software may be sold for money–like Microsoft’s or Apple’s, I suppose–but the fundamental difference is that its blueprints (the ‘source code’) must also be given along with the product.

Zip. Nada. Zilch. Zero.

It is, however, common practice to provide ‘free’ software at no cost, and this is what I do. All the software that you will be able to access on a Friendly Computer will cost you nothing. This is a great benefit, and will save you a lot of time and money.

I am able to do this because the software freedom movement is made up of tens of thousands of volunteers, software engineers, and technical writers. You are benefiting from the hard–and frequently unpaid–work that so many of us do in order to make sure that computers remain friendly, and not scary and dangerous.