Libre Software

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"Libre 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.

In particular, four freedoms define Free Software:

The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.

Placing restrictions on the use of Free Software, such as time ("30 days trial period", "license expires January 1st, 2004") purpose ("permission granted for research and non-commercial use", "may not be used for benchmarking") or geographic area ("must not be used in country X") makes a program non-free.

The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs.

Placing legal or practical restrictions on the comprehension or modification of a program, such as mandatory purchase of special licenses, signing of a Non-Disclosure-Agreement (NDA) or - for programming languages that have multiple forms or representation - making the preferred human way of comprehending and editing a program ("source code") inaccessible also makes it proprietary (non-free). Without the freedom to modify a program, people will remain at the mercy of a single vendor.

The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.

Software can be copied/distributed at virtually no cost. If you are not allowed to give a program to a person in need, that makes a program non-free. This can be done for a charge, if you so choose.

The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.

Not everyone is an equally good programmer in all fields. Some people don't know how to program at all. This freedom allows those who do not have the time or skills to solve a problem to indirectly access the freedom to modify. This can be done for a charge.

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Some interesting distributed networks (non-centrally controllable networks) (slrpnk.net)

submitted 4 months ago by Julian_1_2_3_4_5@slrpnk.net to c/libre_software@lemmy.ml

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some projects/ideas i found in the last couple of years, that try to solve our current problem of the internet being a centralized structure that is controllable by big corporations or governments and not so easily usable with mesh technology or when not being connected for long amounts of time

https://scuttlebutt.nz/docs/introduction/

https://ipfs.tech/#why

https://yggdrasil-network.github.io/

https://www.inverse.com/science/39507-mesh-networks-net-neutrality-fcc

https://zeronet.io/

https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/zaibatsu.circumlunar.space/~solderpunk/gemlog/low-budget-p2p-content-distribution-with-git.gmi

https://geti2p.net/en/

https://redecentralize.github.io/alternative-internet/

https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns

https://netsukuku.freaknet.org/

https://hyperboria.net/

https://urbit.org/

https://agregore.mauve.moe/

https://www.hyphanet.org/

http://libertreeproject.org/

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[–] rrobin@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for the list, there were a few I did not know about.

I would add ToR and GNUNet (https://www.gnunet.org/) too.

[–] Julian_1_2_3_4_5@slrpnk.net 1 points 4 months ago

Oh true ^^

[–] NationProtons@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So what are these exactly? An alternative to www/http websites? Are there any specific 'websites' or features that make it worth it to use something like this? (over TOR for example)

[–] Julian_1_2_3_4_5@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 months ago

projects or ideas that try to be part of the movement to make the internet more decentralized and distributed. Yes some like Yggdrasil or TOR are about alternative routing via overlay networks that work over basically any connection. Others like SSB are trying to be even more revolutionary, by changing what we define as a network. All in all i would count most of those as Ideas or Impulses that if you are interested you definitely should check out and some of their concepts, i see becoming our internet in the future