I discovered Linux in high school and fell in love with the OS in college.I dreamed of getting a job writing about free software and making others aware of the amazing things they can do with their computer.But despite this dream coming true, I’m no longer the open source purist I once was.
Now I prefer not really having to think of software at all.I wanted to raise my kids on Linux and open-source values The next generation wouldn't already be accustomed to Windows People come to Linux and open source apps for different reasons.I originally discovered open source apps like OpenOffice.org and GIMP in high school because they were free and, as someone without a credit card to pay for apps, these became essential tools.
It was the ethics of free software that appealed to me most.Here was software you could use regardless of income.And unlike free cloud-based apps like Google Docs, you could use them without fear of being tracked and having your every action monetized.
I did not like, and still don't like, the idea of privacy being a luxury reserved only for those who can afford it.Free and open source software is code that you truly get to own and can use with less fear of the software suddenly going away.So many of our modern concerns about software about tracking and enshittification would be solved if the most popular software were open source.
I still prefer for software to be open source, but I no longer require it.As a parent and professional, I have other things to think about Besides, I can't open source all the things I don't have to imagine what I will do when I have kids someday—I already have two of them.I tried sending my son to school with a Linux-powered laptop, and there were challenges I didn’t expect.
Online parental controls for Linux were virtually non-existent, and we live in a time when even if an 8-year-old can be trusted not to seek our inappropriate sites, algorithms and ads will seek them out instead.Frustratingly, the offline parental controls I implemented in GNOME on Fedora required password prompts for background tasks like installing updates, rendering the laptop almost unusable if I wasn’t around.Even worse—the laptops I installed Linux on simply weren’t durable enough for young kids.
Thanks to the nature of my job, I entered parenthood with a stockpile of old laptops, and our kids have broken all of them.I use a phone as my primary computer now, and when I say I no longer own a laptop, they’re the reason why.Now my kids use Android tablets.
They’re more durable, and there are cases that make them even more so.The software is easy to lock down and fine-tune to what’s age appropriate.Android has also matured to the point that, paired with a Bluetooth keyboard, my kids are able to complete any assignment they need for school.
Have you shopped for a Samsung tablet lately? Galaxy Tabs now feel a lot like laptops.That's part of the reason we gradually became a Samsung Galaxy household.The world has changed.
Even when my son was using Linux, his school still required that he have a Google account and do everything in Google Docs.Being able to swap out Microsoft Office for LibreOffice is simply irrelevant.I intended to start my son off with a Proton Mail email address, but the only people he receives messages from are his teachers and classmates communicating with his required Google account.
Likewise, software has encroached into more aspects of our lives.I drive an electric car running proprietary software and accessible from a proprietary app (Kia).The solar panels on my roof are integrated into cloud-based proprietary software (Enphase).
TVs aren’t dumb displays anymore, and the baked-in software (Samsung One UI) is proprietary, as are the available streaming boxes.My house is now a smart home, and while Home Assistant makes it possible to control most of these devices using open-source software, I have found it more time-consuming to maintain than I expected, and things have broken or failed semi-often.Early on, I called buying Home Assistant Green the best smart home decision I ever made, but I'm starting to eat those words.
I now value simple, easy-to-learn software I've learned how off-putting many open-source tools can be I’ve currently swapped out my Home Assistant Green for a Homey Pro Mini.I haven’t used it long enough to know if it will be more reliable long-term, but I rarely need to look up how to do something—and that difference has become invaluable.The Homey interface is everything I want Home Assistant to be, without confusing terminology like "entities" and simple tasks like deleting devices requiring more steps than seem necessary.
I've come to feel the same way about the phone I use as my personal computer—I ditched Linux for Samsung DeX over a year ago.I originally became interested in Android as a mobile version of Linux, but I have since come to appreciate Android as a model of how a vast ecosystem of devices and apps can be built on top of an open-source foundation.One of the things I love most about Android is how simple the software is designed without getting in the way of productivity.
If anything, just the opposite is true.People can do virtually anything from a smartphone, with apps like Canva empowering people to do complicated tasks in interfaces that are much easier to learn than their desktop alternatives.I’m personally far more active in the mobile version of Slack than the desktop-based one, just based on how it presents the same functionality.
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Being a homeowner has also greatly expanded the number of things I need to maintain.My wife and I are responsible for several acres of land, two cars, household appliances, and daily chores in addition to parenting and our careers.I better understand how learning the inner workings of my computer can be as uninteresting to others as knowing how a car engine works is to me.
I just want a car to come on when I press the button, and I intuitively get how someone can be as unconcerned about their PC software being proprietary as I am about the proprietary nature of my car's infotainment screen.As a working adult who already doesn't have much energy at the end of my day, I get why someone doesn't want to learn how to spin up a VPS and self-host their own software.And I really don't want to spend my precious time on a Saturday afternoon fixing something that broke.
These days, I get excited about easy-to-use software the way I used to get excited about something being open source.I'm also happy to support small teams trying to make a living by selling useful apps or hardware.I'm still happy to cheer on open-source software, but it's no longer my guiding star.
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