From 2006-2007 I blogged about Linux and Free/Libre Open-Source
Software (FLOSS). The original blog is no more, but I had saved an
export of my posts and was able to convert them to text format. In
preparing them for gopher consumption [0] I also went through and
checked the links, replacing those that were dead with archive.org
links from the same time period. So it's a snapshot of an active and
turbulent period in tech history, and I found it interesting to read
and compare the situation then to now.

Some of the more interesting posts are the interview with Richard
Stallman [1], mainly because he talks about things he normally does
not touch on in his standard talks. His comments on fascism are
prescient.

Another common theme in that time period was the OEM power of
Microsoft, and how they used it to force consumers to use their OS
and their software [2]. While consumer choice has ostensibly
improved, I would not consider the choice of Google or Apple
hardware as an improvement. The choice is there, sure, but it's a
false one of data theft and loss of privacy on a closed system that
is designed to lock you in once you start using those companies'
services. If anything, the situation has gotten worse since then -
not for those of us who like to install our own OS on our own
hardware, but for the masses who just buy and use whatever is out
there on Amazon or in Best Buy.

The rapid adoption of services on large cloud providers like AWS
perpetuates the problems I mentioned with proprietary software
support [3], but in a different way. You can run whatever software
you want, but you are locked into the AWS ecosystem and getting out
of it is difficult unless you are running vanilla network services
on a standard OS build. Few companies opt to do this.

The good news is that VPS's are a commodity and there is far more
choice available today, at far less cost than there was in 2006, if
you just need a cheap Linux or BSD VPS to run a gopher server or
whatever.

[0]: gopher://gopher.unixlore.net/1/articles/historical-blog-posts
[1]: gopher://gopher.unixlore.net/0/articles/historical-blog-posts/20060314-rms-interview-free-software-as-a-social-movement.txt
[2]: gopher://gopher.unixlore.net/0/articles/historical-blog-posts/20060425-desktop-linux-and-microsofts-oem-power.txt
[3]: gopher://gopher.unixlore.net/0/articles/historical-blog-posts/20060314-battles-with-proprietary-software-support.txt