Post by @panos@catodon.rocks

The story of Linux should inspire the Fediverse.

"The year of the Linux desktop" has been a joke for 25 years - a quarter of the century! Yet slowly, and with a persistent following building for linux and supporting it, it's reaching a point where it's no longer something to laugh about - it's a valid choice for many people. Hell, my father (who is 81!) uses ZorinOS, which I installed when windows became too laggy and frustrating for him on his aging PC.

Similarly, if you tell someone that fedi can replace facebook/instagram/x for them, they will probably not take you seriously - most of the people they want to interact with are not here. In the very same way that the apps that people wanted to use on their operating system were not on linux some years ago. Things change - we can change them!

Linux is 35 years old. ActivityPub is less than 10!

Let's build apps and communities for the widespread adoption of the open web, for the fedi revolution. This won't come by itself, we have to prepare it. But we will - we already are!

#fediverse #activitypub #linux

#linux #activitypub #fediverse

1 Boost

0 Likes

🫧 Social coding commons

@smallcircles@social.coop 5 hr. ago

@panos

Linux had a number of benefits. It had a very clear vision of what it should achieve: offering an open source proper operating system alternative. And it had a dedicated BDFL to oversee and steer its evolution process. During that evolution a helluva professional organization structure and development process was put in place to ensure things didn't go off the rails (an organization that receives criticism from fans for its corporate-commercial tendencies).

The fediverse lacks those things until now. It is a wholly chaotic grassroots environment with laissez-faire haphazard development in all directions based on a protocol that is too loose, too flexible to ensure any kind of real interoperability. The accepted work method of post-facto interoperability leads to Big ball of mud and Whack-a-mole development anti-patterns.

Fediverse can certainly be inspired by Linux. But it must address these shortcomings. And in a way that fits its culture and values.

https://coding.social/blog/grassroots-evolution

lobingera

@lobingera@chaos.social 31 min. ago

@smallcircles @panos No that i disagree, but do you see organizing as first step or "someone build and share interop testing" first?

panos :catodon:

@panos@catodon.rocks 5 hr. ago

@smallcircles@social.coop you do have a point, but I think you're also playing down the fact that linux also has had a pretty chaotic ecosystem, with distros inventing their own ways to distribute software etc. Yet somehow it managed, and some semi-standards have emerged out of this process. I think something similar happens with fedi. One of our main goals in Catodon is actually to bring together the prominent implementations for different aspects of social networking on fedi, support them and help standardize them. We've already done a lot in this direction but we will deepen this work in 2027.

🫧 Social coding commons

@smallcircles@social.coop 5 hr. ago

@panos

Yes, you are right in that, and Catodon follows a good approach here. In the article (which is very long) I introduced the new concept of "Grassroots open standards" and grassroots standardization processes.

The "grassroots" here means that things 'bubble up' from the chaotic cauldron into more coherent shape and form. What would fit very well in the context of the fediverse developer ecosystem is "chaordic organization". See the summary block in this link for the characteristics on how this works:

https://coding.social/blog/reimagine-social/#chaordic-organization

Social coding commons

How we Reimagine the Social web

We find novel ways to collaborate and create value together.

⁂