How can we use computers more freely and safely?
the punchline Prefer software: with thousands rather than millions of users
that seldom requires updates
that spawns lots of forks
that is easy to modify
that you can modify These are my suggestions. Prefer software with thousands rather than millions of users,
that doesn't change often,
that seems to get forked a lot,
that can be modified without specialized tools, and, ideally
that you can make small changes to. Yourself. In a single afternoon. You don't have to do all this. Their benefits are additive, but acting on even one of these suggestions is better than nothing. The suggestions are arranged roughly in order of increasing effort and skill required. Trying to follow one suggestion will pave the way for the others, should you choose later to continue down this path. Software without constant updates is easier for forks to keep up with. Forks are signs of easily-modified software, and testimonials from nearby programmers can be promising signs that, hey, maybe making a change yourself won't be very hard. The most important step is the first one. Humanity didn't get good at building houses by building the same house a million times. We built lots of different houses and learned from each other's failures. Gravitating away from monopolies is a way everyone can help improve software, regardless of our abilities or needs.
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