Technology

59534 readers

3143 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

110

FUTO Keyboard: The Discussion Behind A Cool Product (tedium.co)

submitted 4 months ago by gedaliyah@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

32 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A pretty interesting take, and an interesting discussion about what it means to be open source. Is there room for a trusted space between open source and closed corporate software?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] mke@lemmy.world 50 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (12 children)

Depends on what you mean by trust. This wasn't made any clearer by reading the article.

"We promise not to do bad things" is not a safe long term contract. If they can change the terms at any moment and retain control, then they can break that promise and that's final.

This is why open source matters. This is why we shouldn't let people try to change the meaning open source. True open source is forever open, it is the author's Ulysses pact.

FUTO keyboard is source available, and that's final, too. Whether it is also "source first" and if that term is worth recognizing at all is a separate and entirely valid discussion. Even the worst incarnation of source available is still generally better than closed source, in my mind.

Can there be a trusted space between open and closed source? Maybe, I don't see why not. Again, define trust, and who's judging. Some people already trust closed source proprietary software, for some reason, while others strongly reject anything that isn't free software—remember, we're not talking about price, here.

I wish FUTO and Rossman all the best, as I do with the free software ecosystem and most of open source. Open source is open source, though, let's not get it twisted.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 18 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Exactly. I use and enjoy FUTO Keyboard and Grayjay, but I'm under no illusion about them being open source, they're source available. I think they're great products and great alternatives to proprietary software, but until it's released under a proper FOSS license, I will be keeping my eye out for credible alternatives.

[–] stepan@lemmy.cafe 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

You might like HeliBoard licensed under GPLv3. I've been using it for several months and I really like it. Sadly, for swipe-typing you need to load proprietary library.

[–] mke@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Currently using HB as well and it's really nice. I'd like to try FlorisBoard again in the future, after they've reached some of their milestones. Seems like it'd be even nicer... If only it made such progress. Not complaining, though, I'll wait as long as they need.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

Cool, I'll try it out! Thanks!

load more comments (8 replies)