08-03-2019, 12:21 PM
Linux stands for individual independence in the realm of personal computers. The diversity only within the Linux world is self evident as a proof towards a hypothesis that Linux opposes any form of digital monopoly or centralized control, within and without. Linux means thinking for oneself, ideally speaking.
Cloud services introduce a new quality to the playground. Even though there is little doubt whether the cloud services are a universal future, especially for the miniaturization of personal hardware - thus allowing to push technological boundaries further, freeing people from at least a certain deal of the limitations imposed by local equipment, resultantly making a step forward in the process of technocratic transcendence and user emancipation - it also implies a different type of mindset. The crucial hardware is no longer on the user. The thinking part, is no longer on the user. The control, is not on the user. It is elsewhere. The chance for dominance of external control is granted.
Linux has always thusfar existed on the margin of mainstream appeal. Even though with the rise of cloud services, the Linux based systems themselves may become a more attractive medium for accessing web only solutions, it happens at a cost - the cost of having Linux limited to the position of a middleman. Linux may easily outperform many commercial offers in the range of comparable tasks, for zero monetary cost to be added, nonetheless, every conscious Linux enthusiast should answer oneself a question: what is the role of awareness in having Linux as the primary or the only operating system? Is Linux just a tool of some sort or is it an expression of certain shared moral values? Is my computer still personal or is it simply a husk without distinctive identity?
Cloud services, is a mind external. Personal computers - in the traditional sense - is a mind internal. The war thusfar has been fought over the ownership of the mind internal. But a new face of war may emerge sometime ahead. The war over having a personal mind at all. The war over having anything at all. The war of thinking for oneself.
The war is lost for the majority of actual and potential userbase. The industry dynamics, the ways of infrastructure unfolding, the business mentality, predicts that. But the fight goes on, as long as there is anyone still willing to pick it up. The fight is for realization of the cost at which future comes. Sometimes it is not what we have that defines us, but it is what we loose or mindfully give up, which does it. Priorities remain the same. Individuality, freedom, autonomy.
Linux, is a turtle, a vicious turtle.
I do not say, loose it. I say, dive, but know when to resurface.
Simultaneously, Linux must take the chance of becoming better, evolving, responding to the time, as local infrastructural conditions - which thusfar have kept it behind the competition, isolated - become weaker.
In the digital age, it is the consciousness factor, which differentiates those swimming from those drowning.
Cloud services introduce a new quality to the playground. Even though there is little doubt whether the cloud services are a universal future, especially for the miniaturization of personal hardware - thus allowing to push technological boundaries further, freeing people from at least a certain deal of the limitations imposed by local equipment, resultantly making a step forward in the process of technocratic transcendence and user emancipation - it also implies a different type of mindset. The crucial hardware is no longer on the user. The thinking part, is no longer on the user. The control, is not on the user. It is elsewhere. The chance for dominance of external control is granted.
Linux has always thusfar existed on the margin of mainstream appeal. Even though with the rise of cloud services, the Linux based systems themselves may become a more attractive medium for accessing web only solutions, it happens at a cost - the cost of having Linux limited to the position of a middleman. Linux may easily outperform many commercial offers in the range of comparable tasks, for zero monetary cost to be added, nonetheless, every conscious Linux enthusiast should answer oneself a question: what is the role of awareness in having Linux as the primary or the only operating system? Is Linux just a tool of some sort or is it an expression of certain shared moral values? Is my computer still personal or is it simply a husk without distinctive identity?
Cloud services, is a mind external. Personal computers - in the traditional sense - is a mind internal. The war thusfar has been fought over the ownership of the mind internal. But a new face of war may emerge sometime ahead. The war over having a personal mind at all. The war over having anything at all. The war of thinking for oneself.
The war is lost for the majority of actual and potential userbase. The industry dynamics, the ways of infrastructure unfolding, the business mentality, predicts that. But the fight goes on, as long as there is anyone still willing to pick it up. The fight is for realization of the cost at which future comes. Sometimes it is not what we have that defines us, but it is what we loose or mindfully give up, which does it. Priorities remain the same. Individuality, freedom, autonomy.
Linux, is a turtle, a vicious turtle.
I do not say, loose it. I say, dive, but know when to resurface.
Simultaneously, Linux must take the chance of becoming better, evolving, responding to the time, as local infrastructural conditions - which thusfar have kept it behind the competition, isolated - become weaker.
In the digital age, it is the consciousness factor, which differentiates those swimming from those drowning.