MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by Qwuke | 2025-10-16 11:59:58+00:00
"First, the freedom to copy a program and redistribute it to your neighbors, so that they can use it as well as you" I can't do this with FSL unless it's a permitted purpose. So, even under this definition it is not free or open source.

The GNU Project and Richard Stallman, who made this statement, would agree that it's not free under even this earliest definition. They in-fact made it even clearer when they defined freedom of "use" as the distinct 0th freedom eventually to make it even clearer that being able to use the software freely is fundamental to their idea of freedom. Again, freedom isn't about price, it's about usage, availability, redistribution and lack of restrictions on this. I cannot freely redistribute FSL licensed code under the original definition of free software.

"Giant trillion dollar conglomerates repackaging and selling a product backed by free labor without contributing back wasn’t something they were contemplating back then."

Yes, the GNU project were acutely aware of this and designed the GPL licenses around such scenarios - they just didn't design it for SaaS businesses, where if you redistribute the built program externally after modifying it but only distributed its responses over a network, you technically weren't obligated to open source that modification. AGPL resolved this issue, and has more case law behind it than this 2 year old license, and has certainly less daunting implications than a not legally well defined 'competing purpose'.

Wrt to the legal concerns with AGPL, they're not actually that it wouldn't provide any protection, but rather that it might offer the originally distributing entity too much power: legal power to declare all software used in the stack to produce a network request MUST be made source available. I have not seen any lawyer concerned with whether or not Amazon would be able to bypass its protections, and the license was made by lawyers to clearly provide protection. Did you create this legal theory yourself? Because I've not seen any writing from a lawyer on the internet that suggests that Amazon could firewall themselves off in a friendly jurisdiction under any reading of the license, and I read a lot of AGPL lawyerblogging.

Sentry, the company who created FSL, even states that this license restricts user freedom explicitly - for the sake of the business interests of the original developer.

So summing up.. Richard Stallman, the FSF, the GNU Project, the OSI, the creators of the FSL, the company now currently using FSL, all agree that this source available license does not meet the definition of "free software". So, whose definition are we using out of thin air?
by jeroenhd | 2025-10-16 12:00:54+00:00
Why would they handle it? The autonomous car has all the time in the world. If it takes too long, the car can just hit an error condition, terminate the ride, or maybe tell passengers to walk to the end of the street to get into another car. Then it can just ignore its surroundings and wait things out.

These cars get away with being incapable of following police instructions, I don't see why they would need to care about other traffic users.
by beAbU | 2025-10-16 12:01:49+00:00
Didn't the ST3000DM001 fail because of a design flaw on the read head landing ramp?

According to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ST3000DM001

Somewhat tangent: Imagine my dismay after googling why two of my drives in my NAS failed within a couple of days of one another, and I came across a Wikipedia page dedicated to the drive's notoriety. I think this is one of the few drives that were so bad that it had it's own dedicated Wikipedia page.
by matheusmoreira | 2025-10-16 12:03:20+00:00
Truly one of the biggest wealth transfers in history. From well meaning developers straight into the pockets of corporations.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120620103603/http://zedshaw.co...

> Why I (A/L)GPL

> Open source to open source, corporation to corporation.

> If you do open source, you’re my hero and I support you.

> If you’re a corporation, let’s talk business.

> I want people to appreciate the work I’ve done and the value of what I’ve made.

> Not pass on by waving “sucker” as they drive their fancy cars.

https://zedshaw.com/blog/2022-02-05-the-beggar-barons/

> To the Beggar Baron, open source's value is its free donation.

> You would never stand on the street and offer to buy the wallets off people who are about to donate a few dollars to you. That'd be stupid.

> They're giving you their money for free. Take it and run.

Always slap AGPLv3 onto everything you make. Always choose the most copyleft license imaginable. Permissive licenses yield zero leverage. It's either AGPLv3 or all rights reserved. Nothing else makes sense.
by pron | 2025-10-16 12:03:54+00:00
I'm not sure what is meant here by "on par with the JVM." I'm not trying to claim that one or the other is better, but there is a basic difference in how they're designed and continue to evolve. .NET believes in a language that gives more control on top of a more basic runtime, while Java believes in a language that's smaller built on top of a more advanced runtime. They just make different tradeoffs. .NET doesn't "need" a more advanced runtime because limitations in its runtime can be overcome by more explicit control in the language; Java doesn't "need" a more elaborate language because limitations in the level of control offered by the language can be overcome by a more sophisticated runtime.

I'm not saying these are huge differences, but they're real. C# has more features than the Java language, while Java's compiler and GCs are more sophisticated than the CLR's. Both of these differences are due to conscious choices made by both teams, and they each have their pros and cons. I think these differences are very apparent in how these two platforms tackled high-scale concurrency: .NET did it in the language; Java did it in the runtime. When it comes to value types, we see a similar difference: in C# you have classes and structs (with autoboxing); in Java we'll just have classes that declare whether they care about identity, and the runtime will then choose how to represent each instance in memory (earlier designs did explore "structs with autoboxing" but things have moved on from there, to the point of redefining autoboxing even for Java primitives; for a type that doesn't care about identity, autoboxing becomes an implementation detail - transparently made by the compiler - with no semantic difference, as a pointer or a value cannot be distinguidhed in such a case - hence https://openjdk.org/jeps/390 - unlike before, when an Integer instance could be distinguished from an int).
by jraph | 2025-10-16 12:04:03+00:00
> but the biggest tech companies don’t care when it comes to repackaging and reselling it as a service.

If I'm not mistaken, Apple would rather avoid touching anything GPLv3 with a ten foot pole. They are among the biggest tech companies in my mind.

Anybody seems fine with GPLv2 though. But GPL is less convenient than permissive licenses.

Of course, you can still indeed build services with GPL software without redistributing the modifications, which is the point of the AGPL.

> It’s not beyond someone like Amazon to setup a new company just firewall off AGPL software.

I suppose so. However, this would work as intended: the Amazon firewall company would need to redistribute the improvements.

Also, do you have examples of this happening? (not arguing, actually genuinely curious)
by debugnik | 2025-10-16 12:04:59+00:00
Of all the things I'd change about OCaml, dune is very much down the list. It's flat out better than cargo in that it's an actual build system with build rules driven by file dependencies, not simply a glorified frontend for a compiler. Not great, but better.

Now, upstreaming OxCaml's unboxed types and stack allocations? That might actually take longer than adding a GC to Rust.
by jbstack | 2025-10-16 12:05:59+00:00
I guess I kind of agree with your disagree, but disagree overall!

The UI in LibreOffice feels quite clunky and outdated and never seems to have been given any thought since the OpenOffice days. But Google Docs is so feature poor that I'd rather live with LibreOffice's UI. Especially as you can adjust to the latter after using the software for a while.
by burnt-resistor | 2025-10-16 12:06:24+00:00
> The overwhelming majority of people are against animal cruelty and creating more antibiotic resistance through cattle farming,

You're seem sure of yourself while being incredibly confused. Strawman fallacy. People may half-heartedly express some things like "they'd buy X if X existed at price Y" but then, time-after-time, they don't do it. Actions are all that matter and are the proof. The actions say most people are happy to maintain cognitive dissonance so long as they don't see how the sausage or hamburger is made. Some "less bad" alternatives are offered in some stores, but these aren't necessarily the standard or popular items because the customer is given the choice to buy Brazilian or American beef raised on CAFOs rather than banning them and banning feeding mostly corn diets altogether. Most consumers and most other buyers will simply choose the cheapest option available, no matter the externalities involved. The corporate meat industry encompasses a powerful lobby that has legal, legislative, and media power to maintain the status quo, and most Americans are low/no information consumers who are happy with (was cheap) fast food and don't think or care how it was produced because they're addicted to UPF. Only a small fraction (<~10%) even put a thought into how their choices matter and not all of those have the luxury to afford alternatives because the precariat are even more precarious these days. It would take radical socioeconomic and political change to undertake unpopular, necessary changes to reduce harm from existential threats. This won't happen until it's already too late and people are dying in massive numbers. Proactive harm reduction is avoided because too much kakisto-klepto-plutocratic forms of government are reactive because they don't care or are too stupid to care.

Fundamentally: the raising of animals for meat is impossible to regulate to assure anything close to uniform, humane conditions, biosecurity, and climate neutrality... because it necessitates suffering and resource intensive. People who are ideologically wedded to meat profiteering and consumption will espouse all sorts of bad arguments that there can be "organic, grass-fed" pseudo-permaculture-washed approaches possible, but it's really denying irreducible facts about growing large numbers of animals' cross-contamination with wildlife and people, feed inputs, waste pollution, and slaughtering them. There's no rehabbing a dirty industry except making it seem less bad with token, performative, greenwashing campaigns.
by sparkie | 2025-10-16 12:06:56+00:00
Surprised there's no mention of Austral[1] in related work. Austral has read and write borrows for linear types, and has been around for a few years.

It uses special `Region` types for borrows, where a linear type `Foo` is wrapped in a reference of type `ReadReference[Foo, R]` or `WriteReference[Foo, R]` (abbreviated as `&[Foo, R]` and `&![Foo, R]` respectively), for some region `R`. The reference takes ownership of the value.

The borrow statement creates a lexical block with a Region type, and within the region the borrowed value is of the reference type tied to that region.

type Foo : Linear let foo : Foo = ... borrow foo as foo_ref in SomeRegion do -- SomeRegion has no prior definition. It is defined here. -- cannot access `foo` in this region as it has been borrowed and is owned by `foo_ref`. -- foo_ref has type &[Foo, SomeRegion] end; -- foo_ref cannot escape this region -- since `SomeRegion` no longer exists. -- foo_ref gives up ownership of the value and it returns to `foo`. -- Can access `foo` again here as it is no longer borrowed.

For mutable borrows the syntax is the same except the keyword `borrow!` is used instead.

borrow! foo as foo_ref in SomeRegion do -- foo_ref has type &![Foo, SomeRegion] end;

In addition to the borrow statement, we can associate a region with a full function by making it region generic.

generic [SomeRegion: Region] function some_reader(&[Foo, SomeRegion]) : T; generic [SomeRegion: Region] function some_writer(&![Foo, SomeRegion]) : Unit;

Then we can use the more terse prefix borrow expression, which creates an anonymous region and wraps its argument in a reference using that region, so calls to these functions are just:

some_reader(&foo); some_writer(&!foo);

Instead of having to write out the more verbose statement form with explicit regions:

borrow foo as foo_ref in SomeRegion do some_reader(foo_ref); end; borrow! foo as foo_ref in SomeRegion do some_writer(foo_ref); end;

[1]:https://austral-lang.org/tutorial/borrowing
by zinekeller | 2025-10-16 12:07:17+00:00
If you happen to be an entrepreneur, a foreigner (relative to the country of work), or an American citizen (despite holding the citizenship you're on, thanks FATCA!), then, yeah, I can see why you have never encountered the simpler arrangements.

If you're an ordinary citizen of most countries and work under a company, the company is obliged to track it for you. What you get is a very simplified form asking if you have more income sources than from your work, and the local tax system means that most of them legally do not have any (for example, banks collect the taxes for the interest you have received, not the arcane American system where you're the one responsible for that).
by subjectivationx | 2025-10-16 12:08:44+00:00
I have used linux for 10 years now but I think you just have to view a mac mini as the cost of a hardware synth or a guitar. Then all your problems are solved.

At this point, I need a nice gpu on a linux machine and a mac mini. It is a dream setup. I think I booted windows once on my most recent laptop because I messed up booting from the thumb drive to blow it away.

Reaper runs incredible on linux for DAW software but you always run into something that is not available with creative software. Then it is really nice keeping the mac only for creative pursuits.
by jader201 | 2025-10-16 12:09:30+00:00
My 15TB DS1511+ from 2011 would like a word.

I only recently replaced a failed HDD and power supply, but otherwise going mostly strong. It will stop responding to the network out of the blue on occasion, but a power cycle gets it back in order.

But I’ve had redundancy for a while with S3, then later (and currently) BackBlaze.

I’ve been looking into replacing it, but I’m hearing Synology hardware and software isn’t as great as it used to be, which is unfortunate, because this thing has been a tank.
by ants_everywhere | 2025-10-16 12:09:50+00:00
Liquibase is also not free software. Most of these non-open-source licenses aren't free software. I'm not aware of any exceptions, but I'd be happy to see some examples if there are any.

The rest of your comment mainly seems to be a mixed bag of rhetoric. It obscures the reality that Liquibase is, to modify your words, "co-opting the" open source movement to make it "more business friendly."
by fn-mote | 2025-10-16 12:10:21+00:00
I don't understand how these could be issues. They aren't in my country.

You're still responsible.

Tell each company how much to withhold.

If they take too much, you get it back when you file taxes.

If they don't take enough, you pay a penalty for having too large of a bill when you file.

The issues you mention exist regardless of how many employers you have, because you can have income that does not come from an employer (e.g. stock dividends).
by tzs | 2025-10-16 12:10:43+00:00
Something like ~40% of US individual taxpayers only need to file a form 1040 [1] for their federal tax return.

Another large group will need that plus a small number of other forms, most of which will be easy to fill. For example if they are getting a tax credit to help with health insurance costs there is form for that. That one's easy to fill out because you will be mailed a report that contains the information needed for the form. The report is in a standard format, and the instructions will be of the form copy line X form the report to line Y of the form.

If your income is just salary plus some investment income from investments like mutual funds you don't have enough deductions to be worth itemizing [2], it generally is pretty straightforward.

[1] https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf

[2] In the US you have a choice between "itemizing" your deductions, which means you have to list all of them, or taking the "standard" deduction, which is around $15k for a single person and around $30k for a married couple. Around 90% of people take the standard deduction.
by Qwuke | 2025-10-16 12:10:55+00:00
Wrt to the legal concerns with AGPL, they're not actually that it wouldn't provide any protection, but rather that it might offer the originally distributing entity too much power: legal power to declare all software used in the stack to produce a network request MUST be made source available. Basically, a ""contagious"" or copyleft license as GPLv3 intended, but even more viral than intended in the AGPL variant since it extends well beyond the source software. I have not seen any lawyer concerned with how Amazon would be able to bypass its protections, *because they're otherwise the same as GPLv3 and have already been tested.*

I think this poster created the legal theory themselves because they were aware of other legal concerns with the AGPL affecting the above scenario. I've read a lot of legalblogging about AGPL, and none bring up this as even a remote possibility, because unless you think GPLv3 case law is somehow irrelevant then you don't think AGPL will be simply bypassed.

One last thing: I'm surprised the poster was concerned about AGPL being untested, despite it using GPLv3, and not that FSL has only existed for 2 years and has 0 case law surrounding.
by adwn | 2025-10-16 12:11:06+00:00
> OS IPC exists for a reason

Message-passing IPC is much, much slower and less efficient than shared-memory communication, and inter-process IPC (both message-passing and shared-memory) is much less convenient than intra-process multi-threading. Rust is the only mainstream language, managed or otherwise, which enables safe and efficient multi-threading.
by billy99k | 2025-10-16 12:11:06+00:00
You mean actually putting criminals in Jail and removing illegal immigrants from the country that the previous administration just let in? More of this please.

Even if Trump was authoritarian (which he's not), it doesn't excuse China's behavior. It's odd that you seem to think it does.

My guess is Chinese government shills, which always seems to happen when discussing these topics.
by timmg | 2025-10-16 12:11:53+00:00
I wonder why there has never been open source tax software. It seems exactly the kind of thing the community would be good at. I imagine it would be hard for very complex taxes. But for the 60% that have simple taxes, I don’t think it should be unmanageable.

Is it a matter of liability? Like I could definitely see a big issue with mistakes — even if it was just operator error.
by hilbert42 | 2025-10-16 12:11:53+00:00
"The diligence required to stay either low or off (if you are lucky) the radar, as it were, is so exhausting as to be impossible for the common tech consumer."

Right, I nevertheless still attempt to keep a low profile by having no Social Media or Google (phone) accounts, no gmail, using rooted phones sans Google apps, blocking both ads and JavaScript, forcing utilities to send me bills by snail mail, etc.; but as you say it's really a lost cause especially if one takes it seriously and really wants to remain anonymous on the net.

I act more out of principal than anything else. Also, I'm quite happy for family and people who know me to just contact me by phone, SMS and or email—or even snail mail (if you read my subsequent reply to the earlier comment it's pretty clear I've no Social Media addiction, not caring a damn about that stuff makes lowering one's profile easier).

I take the view that government already knows full well who I am especially given that it once employed me to do surveillance work. (No, I'm not acting hypocritically here, that work wasn't sussing out citizens but keeping an eye on nuclear materials—stopping it falling into wrong hands.)

What really annoys me is how pernicious and underhanded surveillance capitalism is. For example, despite the steps I've taken above, it only takes one or two people with Google accounts to enter my details into their phone and gmail accounts for Google to figure out who I am. Telling friends and acquaintances not to enter one's details into their phones is a hopeless task.

Google can further tighen up my address details by 'triangulation'—cross-referencing it using my neighbors' WiFi to get my SSID info, etc. Yes, I could hide that info but it's too much trouble.

In my other reply it's clear that governments dropped the ball early on with respect to user privacy, what I didn't mention was that it didn't take them long to realize that having Big Tech to do the heavy lifting with respect to surveiling citizens was and is a great advantage. Thus, their great reluctance to act.

Dodging both Big Tech and government is essentially fruitless. The best I can do is to render the data collected for advertising purposes worthless. To date, at least to my knowledge, I've been successful as I've never received any targeted advertising.

But then how would I ever know given that I've always been very efficient at blocking ads? :-)
by contextsearch | 2025-10-16 12:12:11+00:00
Hello everyone, we've developed a new privacy-conscious search engine. Currently, it searches 320 sites and approximately 420 pages in total, but this number will increase in the future. This search engine is open source, prioritizes privacy, and is constantly being developed. You can use or try it if you'd like, but the content may not be sufficient yet. If you have any additional questions, please leave a comment.

Search engine link https://contextsearch.pages.dev

Search query link (add to browser) https://contextsearch.pages.dev/search?q=%s

Github repository https://github.com/experments-studios/contextsearch
by ndriscoll | 2025-10-16 12:12:58+00:00
I—like most people—don't have a maid. Is Tom Cruise going to break into my house to add a keylogger to my computer without me noticing? If anyone is breaking in, my threat model is worrying about me or my family getting killed, not someone installing an evil bootloader.

Most market segmentation is just to screw customers (e.g. ECC support), but measured boot is one that really only needs to be on enterprise server or workstation-class hardware, and actually causes issues by existing in mass market hardware.
by fn-mote | 2025-10-16 12:13:33+00:00
> Yes, but tax filers have potential civil and criminal liability risk if they make a mistake.

How is this an issue? Why would it be different under another system?

I see you posting a lot of what I think are pro-tax-prep messages but they don't seem to have any substance. Please try to take them to the conclusion of an argument. (That is, finish by connecting the facts you are posting with some assertion about the desirability of the current system, or some assertion the parent has made.)