Why do you do you contribute here in the forum/ to antiX?

[Member PPC]

A small conflict involving me here in the forum made me ask myself… why do I bother contributing here in the forum? Why do I bother creating GUI’s and scripts to make antiX more intuitive to use or add small and handy new features to it? That made me think – why do moderators invest their time here? Why does anticapitalista, Dave and the rest of the team create, maintain or develop a completely free Operating System, or folks like Skidoo, Xecure (both much missed here), BobC, Robin, etc, create new tools for it? Why do folks like MarceloCripe invest their time helping to translate (localize) antiX and it’s apps, when there are so many already (many hundreds), all competing for a market share of about 1%-4% of desktop computers?

For me, it’s hard to say – it’s a mix of wanting to give back to the community and also a bit o O.C.D. – I see a masterpiece and I think – “This is truly great, but it would be almost perfect if not for this tiny detail… let’s try to fix it”. I also tend to use scripting as a way to escape real life problems…

And why do I try to help out here in the forum?
In part for the very same reasons I try to “sand down some of what I consider it’s imperfections” – it bothers me, knowing that someone has a problem, no matter how trivial it is and I can help solve it with only some minutes of my time. Once again, I’m paying it forward – someone helped me here, so I help others.

It’s also a small way to contribute to the planet- the longer “older” computers are in service, less e-waste the world has to deal with… The less money people do have to pay to have a fully working computing device, so they save money (specially in this troubled times, here in Europe)…

In practice, when I can, I try to make it that, even completely free, antiX has better on-line support than most paid products – no one here follows a script to try to make the client think stuff like- “You have bad reception on your very expensive phone? That’s only because you are holding it wrong, no matter that you have been holding your phones that way for the last 15 years!”. We tend to be honest – we either try to figure out what is wrong and help or we say, “sorry, that can’t be done”… Ex: “Someone gave me this busted thumb-drive that does not work in any OS that I tried on, across multiple computers… help me make it work in antiX…” With almost 99.999% certainty, the answer will really be “Buddy, it’s busted, it happens, nothing lasts forever, not even with antiX’s help… Throw it away or use it as part of a Modern Art project!”
We occasionally get some very strange problems that really are due to user error – “I want to change this setting but I can’t!”… The answer – “easy: open the config file and edit that setting (probably around line nr yy), replacing it with line ‘XXXXXX'”- The user “It still does not work!!! Oh, wait, I just noticed I previously edited this config file and placed another line, further down, that forces that setting back to it’s initial value, sorry, my bad!” – That happened to me twice over the years, and I’m not the only one…
I even got personally attacked here, when I was developing what’s now “antiX-updater”, by a user that seemed to think that I was trying somehow to help a country that I never even been in achieve world dominance!… hum… Do you prefer to update your system using the terminal? I do that all the time… But if, for a couple of kb, users can have an easy GUI way to do that, what’s the harm in that? Even a minimalist like anticapitalista (that I’m positive never uses that script, unless he’s testing it) thought that having that feature would add value to antiX.
Despite all that… I still tend to try to “give back” to the community, in my own little way…. why do you do it?

P.

• This topic was modified 1 year ago by PPC.

[Member oops]

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… For me it is because this distribution is fine and efficient, for the olds and poor machines (and the new riches ones too).

I like this philosophy. (and the diversity of init systems)

[Member calciumsodium]

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For me, who knows very little about computers and programming, I contribute and give back to antiX by testing some of the software and scripts. But I think I gain more by contributing and participating. During my time participating in the forum, I have learned about the difference between sysvinit and runit init systems. I learned about the runit-service-manager and how it manages the different runit services. I learned the difference between slim and slimski. The difference between rox and zzzfm. The difference between icewm and fluxbox. The difference between libre kernel and the antiX kernel. Which then led me to learn about the trisquel kernel. Then I learned about liquorix kernel, then the xanmod kernel, and the debian kernel. Then I learned about the different browsers: links, links2, lynx, falkon, seamonkey, firefox-esr, firefox, chromium, abrowser, librewolf, ungoogled chromium, google-chrome. Then I learned about libreoffice and openoffice. Then I learned about some of the scripting that allows one to choose preferred applications. I learned about and use all the software and scripts that I have mentioned because of direct testing and participation in the forum. Therefore, I participate in the forum to learn. Hopefully others can also participate in a respectful and cooperative spirit.

[Member sybok]

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Hi,
the motivation to contribute on this forum is three-folds:
1) To give back (for what I use almost everyday); motivation for which can be altruistic or self-serving (patting myself on my back: oh, I am good, I give back).
2) To learn something new (about antiX and Linux in general).
3) Marginal so far: (to have the ability to) present my opinion when asked about it (what I would like to see included/excluded etc.).

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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I’ve embraced freely available software ever since I was a developer, even prior to the GNU project. Those of you who know about GNU realize that at one time many unorganized software projects existed but some commercial efforts sought to block and protect their products and that upset Richard Stallman, so he invented software that MUST be freely licensed.

Today there are multiple forms of such licenses, some guarantee software freedom, others simply state that the work is properly owned but may be shared as long as the owners are recognized and cited in anything copied or modified.

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Brian Masinick

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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I do what I do as a hobby, and to promote software freedoms of all types.

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Brian Masinick

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

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Anti taught me how to use Linux. Simple as that.

Don’t be thin skinned when helping out folks.
When they are unappreciative.
In my mind. This is what passes.

” Thanks for letting me know. Good luck with the rest of your life”

Then. They hit my ignore list ricky tic. My Linux Questions ignore list is huge. To the point. I forgot why they made it to my ignore list. Go figure.

I realize about the difficulty writing programs. Throwing them out there. Then the world being what it is now.
The critique. Most folks seem to let free fly right over their heads lately. Kinda like they are customers paying for product.
That kind of thinking don’t work in my motorcycle parking lot either. I get paid for my work. Don’t care if you don’t like it.
Fix it yourself then. They calm down then. Probably mutter behind my back. No lost sleep here.

Now, Polite and manners and respect critique. I can handle.

I for one appreciate all your work PPC.

Sometimes I drive a crooked road to get my mind straight.
Not all who Wander are Lost.
Motorcycle racing is rocket science.

Linux Registered User # 475019
How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems

[Member andyprough]

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I don’t really help out that much, because I don’t know anything about all the proprietary firmware, and a lot of the problems posted to this forum (like on every distro forum) have to do with proprietary graphics cards, proprietary wifi cards, etc. I don’t use that kind of hardware, so there’s almost nothing I know about them.

What I do post here is about packages that I’m building to suit my own needs, or about my libre antiX respin to use on my own machine and share with a few friends. Also, I post when I figure out how to do something – it’s easy to write a how-to here and then search for it later to remind myself how to do things.

I don’t recall anyone getting angry with me on this forum, but it does happen on other forums. On the Devuan forum last week someone complained that a post I wrote 6-months ago about some malware that was posing as a systemd package was “clickbait”. I told him my post must have been pretty poor clickbait if it didn’t get any engagement until 6 months after I posted it. I don’t really care though – most forum complaints are pretty forgettable. It’s not like they’re my real-life neighbors and I have to see them every day. I don’t recall getting angry enough at anyone to put them on an ignore list or block list. Certainly not on this forum – this place has been super friendly for me.

Brian Masinick wrote:

Those of you who know about GNU realize that at one time many unorganized software projects existed but some commercial efforts sought to block and protect their products and that upset Richard Stallman, so he invented software that MUST be freely licensed.

That’s a good point Brian – some years ago I read Stallman’s book, and read a bio about him, and watched a bunch of his speeches, and I must admit I got hooked on the idea of libre software. I love the ability to take a package apart and build it to suit my own needs. It’s odd, you wouldn’t think that a relatively strange fellow like RMS would have a big impact on your thinking. He and I are very very different in our personal lives and life experiences. But he’s definitely had a big impact on my thinking on computers, programs, and on privacy.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by andyprough.

[Member marcelocripe]

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Why do you do you contribute here in the forum/ to antiX?

It was not easy for me to find this GNU/Linux community and I hope that it will continue to exist even when I am no longer alive or even when this generation is no longer alive and that it can continue to exist for the next generations.
This is one of the few GNU/Linux communities that accepted me, even though I didn’t know how to write and read in English.
This is one of the few GNU/Linux communities that allowed me to collaborate in some way, whether translating into Brazilian Portuguese or helping to test programs.
Since August 2020, when I started translating antiX and antiX native programs, the workload of Portuguese translators has decreased considerably, given that due to the lack of Brazilian volunteer translators, Portuguese colleagues translated so much into the language “pt ” and for the language “pt_BR”.
As antiX and MX Linux share the same translation platform, I collaborate on translations for both operating systems.
I’ve written here on the forum several times that “surely I can never repay all the people who always teach what they know here on the forum”. I wrote “all people” because I didn’t want to be unfair if I forgot a name. For me, it doesn’t matter if the person helped me or taught me with a sentence or with a giant text, what matters to me is that the information was useful and I am very grateful for that.
In the course of the “fight” with translations, I’ve already been disrespected by MX Linux, Celluloid, MPV, DeSmuME, etc forum administrators. But that doesn’t affect me, because my objective is much bigger than the offenses that were lost with the automatic translator (it’s at these times that it’s good not to know the English language), the translations are for the good of the communication between the programmers and end users who cannot write and read in English. So, offenses are very small attitudes when compared to the importance of communication.
After we learn something from this forum, we can share knowledge with other people who are arriving and the flow of knowledge and information will continue to grow.
Disregard rude or ungrateful people, as they are not what we donate our time to. We donate our time to educated people who are grateful for what they get without paying anything for it.

Long live antiX! or better …
Eternal life to antiX!

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Why do you do you contribute here in the forum/ to antiX?

Não foi fácil para eu encontrar esta comunidade GNU/Linux e espero que continue existindo mesmo quando eu não estiver mais vivo ou mesmo quando esta geração não estiver mais viva e que possa continuar existindo para as próximas gerações.
Esta é uma das poucas comunidades GNU/Linux que me aceitou, mesmo sem eu saber escrever e ler em idioma Inglês.
Esta é uma das poucas comunidades GNU/Linux que me permitiu colaborar de alguma forma, seja traduzindo para o idioma Português do Brasil ou ajudando a testar os programas.
Desde agosto de 2020, quando eu iniciei com as traduções do antiX e dos programas nativos do antiX, a carga de trabalho dos tradutores Portugueses diminui consideravelmente, haja vista que por falta de tradutores voluntários Brasileiros, os colegas Portugueses traduziam tanto para o idioma “pt” quanto para o idioma “pt_BR”.
Como o antiX e o MX Linux compartilham a mesma plataforma de tradução, eu colaboro com as traduções de ambos os sistemas operacionais.
Eu já escrevi aqui no fórum várias vezes que “certamente eu nunca poderei retribuir para todas as pessoas que sempre ensinam o que sabem aqui no fórum”. Eu escrevi “todas as pessoas” porque eu não queria ser injusto se eu me esquecesse de algum nome. Para mim, não importa se a pessoa me ajudou ou me ensinou com uma frase ou com um texto gigante, o que me importa é que a informação foi útil e eu sou muito grato por isso.
Ao longo da “luta” com as traduções, eu já fui desrespeitado por administradores do fórum do MX Linux, Celluloid, MPV, DeSmuME, etc. Mas isso não me atinge, pois o meu objetivo é muito maior do que as ofensas que se perderam com o tradutor automático (é nestas horas que é bom não saber o idioma Inglês), as traduções são para o bem da comunicação entre os programadores e os usuários finais que não sabem escrever e ler em idioma Inglês. Então, as ofensas são atitudes muito pequenas quando comparadas a importância da comunicação.
Depois de aprendermos alguma coisa neste fórum, nós podemos compartilhar conhecimento com as outras pessoas que estão chegando e a corrente do conhecimento e da informação continuará crescendo.
Desconsidere as pessoas mal educadas ou mal agradecidas, pois não são para elas que doamos o nosso tempo. Nós doamos o nosso tempo para as pessoas educadas e que são agradecidas por aquilo que recebem sem pagar nada por isso.

Vida longa ao antiX! ou melhor …
Vida eterna ao antiX!

[Member punranger]

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I occasionally am able to provide help to questions asked here, and I have a made a couple videos demonstrating the virtues of antiX. The reasons for doing so are many of the same that have been mentioned here. I’d like to highlight the fact that it feels good to be useful, and that’s just not my opinion. Research has shown that contributing as a volunteer has benefits for both your psychological wellbeing and your overall health. Volunteers stay healthier and live longer. See for example http://doi.org/10.1177/002214650704800408.

antiX linux: The best way to revive an old computer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCTaUAP6sSg

[Member blur13]

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I use antiX daily, and I want to use it efficiently. Reading the forum is a great learning experience, and its sort of the manual to the distribution. If I happen to see someone asking a question that I have an answer to, then of course I’ll contribute. Especially if its a question where the answer isnt at all obvious. If the answer is a google search away then I’ll decline to help.

Above all its fun. To have people from all over the world with the common goal of trying to get the most out of old hardware. Or to have a system the flies on modern hardware.

[Member techore]

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You guys (and gals?) are awesome. I appreciate your contributions.

I visit this forum because I enjoy helping and learning from others. Even new Linux users may come across a tidbit and share something that I don’t know.

Reading @PPC post, I am reminded of USENET when I was one of a handful of active Red Hat posters for several years. This was from 1995 to 2000. We had to deal with trolls in an non-moderated environment. It is much worse today but I still feel ignoring trolls or unkind criticism is the best strategy. Fortunately, this forum is moderated.

[Moderator christophe]

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rokytnji wrote:

I for one appreciate all your work PPC.

PPC wrote:

I even got personally attacked here, when I was developing what’s now “antiX-updater”, by a user that seemed to think that I was trying somehow to help a country that I never even been in achieve world dominance!…

Was that the one where someone accused you of being a “Yank” (short for Yankee)? I would take that as a compliment – because you are so good at writing, he must have assumed English must have been your first language. ????

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by christophe.
• This reply was modified 1 year ago by christophe.

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Member PPC]

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Thanks for the appreciation, guys! 🙂

christophe wrote:

Was that the one where someone accused you of being a “Yank”

I guess so… It’s been a while and my memory is lousy. I do recall that the guy, for some reason though I was American and that anticapitalista agreed with his ideas (for whatever reason). I recall the guy said he was older and with health problems- I even PM’d him (trying to quiet down the situation), but, for some reason that seemed to just wind him up even further…

Small unrelated rant, caused by the memory of that forum member (we are in the right forum thread for that):
I’m as anti-imperialist (wow nice nickname!) as the next guy, but I have nothing against US citizens (or Chinese or Russian ones, or whatever)- we Portuguese, some 500 years ago, “ruled” half the world (seriously, Portugal and Spain decided they would rule half the world each, excluding Europe and a few other places), we know (historically speaking) how it feels, when a country looks at another country’s resources and thinks… “Hum… This looks nice, I’ll take it”. But that’s just politics, it has nothing do to with the people that leave in those countries (unless they are unfortunate enough to be sent to war over some far away land).
My father, for example, is old enough to have been forced to “fight for Portugal” (that’s the most eastern European country) in Africa, just because, you know, those nice lands over there? They are our’s, we took it over some 450 years go, so they are a part of “Portugal”, no matter how far away it is… History, tends to repeat itself…

Fortunately, over here, in this forum, we all work together, for a common goal- keep crappy hardware working 🙂

P.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by PPC.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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The older I get, the more I realize that people everywhere are just people.

A long time ago, Paul McCartney (former “Beatles” star) and American rhythm and blues star “Stevie Wonder” got together to write and sing a song entitled “Ebony and Ivory”, an analogy between the black and white keys that “live together in perfect harmony”. In the song, they ask the question: “If these keys can live on our keyboards in perfect harmony, “Why Can’t We?”

Clearly these two musical icons can and did live and work together on their collaboration. Many of us, individually, also live together in harmony, halfway across and around the globe, but some people are cooperative and the noisy minority are not.

I choose to live harmoniously with as many people as possible, and I tend to allow some squablles and disagreements to take place. Differences of opinion are important to be able to express, and I speak for our moderation and administration community when I state that we value differences, including differences of opinion, yet I caution each and every one of us as we express both common thinking and differing opinions that we do so with respect for each person and each viewpoint, then our collective opinions and expressions can be made in many wonderful ways. It’s only when our behavior turns unpleasant and nasty toward one another that we’re forced to take action.

I enjoy communicating with people from places around the globe where our leaders are at odds with one another, yet we as common citizens can respect and value the intelligence and beautiful expressions that we bring to so many aspects of the work, the technology in the code, the visual artwork in the graphical interfaces, the testing that goes on behind the scenes, the brainstorms of ideas that are continually raised and the help that people share with one another in these forums, they are all beautiful works of expertise and human sharing. To all who share here, I thank you!

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Brian Masinick

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