iris-digital

It's been a difficult two decades for those of us who expect the products we buy to respect our freedom and privacy. We've been marginalized by the mobile revolution for so long that we'd nearly given up looking for options.

While commiserating recently, we realized that several important missing pieces of the puzzle have neatly dropped under our noses while we weren't looking! What are they?

In no particular order, the Fairphone6 w/eOS, Furilabs FLX1s, Starlite Tablet, new Framework laptops, System76 servers, OpenWRT One, and a number of others already shipping. Software options are plentiful as well. The landscape has changed significantly in a few short years.

Of course, these products are not perfect. Right now you might be counting their flaws. But we feel there's a another way to look at the situation. That these are now good enough for the vast majority of folks—and they'll only get better, if further invested in.

The catch? One needs to wrangle numerous products from almost as many companies. That's tedious for normal folks and busy geeks alike, plus it splits investment into small portions.

So, how can we get these organizations to work together? We've brainstormed some ideas, such as a unified storefront, licensing, mergers, etc, but don't know how feasible they are. What do y'all think?

If we can help these products get attention, increase sales, and further investment, we'll complete a libre product line that much faster. These goals are detailed at "The Ethical Computing Initiative," https://aol.codeberg.page/eci/ BTW.

TL;DR—Many open, respectful products are listed at: https://aol.codeberg.page/eci/status.html Now they need our support!

It's been a difficult two decades for those of us who expect the products we buy to respect our freedom and privacy. We've been marginalized by the mobile revolution for so long that we'd nearly given up looking for options.

While commiserating recently, we realized that several important missing pieces of the puzzle have neatly dropped under our noses while we weren't looking! What are they?

Well, the Fairphone6 w/eOS, Furilabs FLX1s, Starlite Tablet, new Framework laptops, OpenWRT One, and a number of others are already shipping. Software options are plentiful as well. The landscape has changed significantly in a few short years.

Of course, these products are not perfect. Right now you might be counting their flaws. But we feel there's a another way to look at the situation. One long-term view is that these respectful options are now good enough for the vast majority of folks—and they'll only get better, if further invested in.

The catch? One needs to wrangle numerous products from almost as many companies. That's tedious for normal folks and busy geeks alike, plus it splits investment into small portions.

So, how can we get these organizations to work together? We've brainstormed some ideas, such as a unified storefront, licensing, mergers, etc, but don't know how feasible they are. What do y'all think?

If we can help these products get attention, increase sales, and further investment, we'll complete a libre product line that much faster. (These goals are detailed at "The Ethical Computing Initiative," https://aol.codeberg.page/eci/ ).

TL;DR—The products are listed at: https://aol.codeberg.page/eci/status.html Now they need our support!

It's been a difficult two decades for those of us who expect technology to respect our freedom and privacy. We have been so marginalized by the mobile revolution, that we'd nearly given up looking for options.

While commiserating recently, we realized that several important missing pieces of the puzzle have neatly dropped into place under our noses!

What are they? Oh, the Fairphone6 w/eOS, Furilabs FLX1s, Starlite tablet, new Framework laptops, OpenWRT One, and a number of others. Software options are plentiful as well, maybe even a bit too plentiful.

Of course, these products are not perfect. Right now you're probably counting their flaws, or about to post better alternatives. But we feel there's a better way to look at the situation. The long-term view is that these open, freedom, and privacy-respecting options are now good enough for the vast majority of folks, and they'll only get better (if further invested in).

(Not to mention, how about the daily tug-of-wars with Windows or dumbing-down of MacOS? Are those products perfect? No, and arguably getting worse as the screws are turned.)

TL;DR—A full suite of respectful, ethical products is available. The catch? One needs to wrangle dozens of products from almost as many companies. That's not gonna work; it's too complicated, even for geeks. Our first idea to tackle the issue is this:

- Build a united storefront, on something like shopify (easy).

- Get numerous vendors to let us sell, integrate, and support their products (probably hard). Anyone out there know how to build such relationships?

If we can help these products sell, they'll be further invested in, and we'll move forward even faster. Full details are at "The Ethical Computing Initiative," at https://aol.codeberg.page/eci/

- Product Status Page at: https://aol.codeberg.page/eci/status.html