Ask Lemmy

I know you do.

Well, you're here, aren't you?

Who's out here trying to figure out the political or other beliefs of developers? I've got around 50 docker containers running on my server, there's no way I'm going through people's profiles to see if they're morally aligned with me.

Depends on the software. I'd not trust a vpn that was made in an authoritarian state. I'll play a game made in one.

As for the developer if they are more famous for their political views than the software I'd probably not install it.

Really depends on the level of disagreement. If its total idiocy like maga or monarchist or something I would likely stay away. If they don't think ubi is a good idea I can get passed that.

No. If I disagree with someone politically it's likely because they want me and anyone like me dead. Those people are dead to me.

Yes, since not liking or disagreeing with someone isn't the same thing as likelihood they are pushing malicious code. If something is open source that's a really good sign, because they could also push closed source code and be more likely to get away with it that way. More points if it clearly has other eyes on it; even if I am not checking over the code myself, someone probably is for a lot of projects.

It's like "separate art from artist" except even more so because software tends to be even more quantifiable as its own independent thing than art is.

it depends on what the software is doing i guess

Most of the time : Yes

But it depends on a lot of things :

Is there any viable alternatives ? What's the nature of the disagreement ? Is there a possibility of a fork emerging ? Etc...

I hate google but I can't replace Android studio at work or ask my employer to stop releasing updates on google play. If the disagreement is about project governance, I would support forking, see CoMaps or Forgejo. I will avoid projects for a variety of reason, two good examples are Manjaro and Hyperland, I avoid the former because of their collaboration politics and the later because they are plain bigots.

Politics can encompass a lot of thing and open source is a very political subject.

if it is open source and sources I trust approve of it, sure

no.

IMO conservatives are untrustworthy and can't identify fact from fiction.

would you run software from a dev who has a problem discerning reality? do you think a schizophrenic person writes stable maintainable code?

mental health is an important part of gaining trust in your product. ironic that they continue to trust and support a geriatric nazi-wannabe, but goes to show how compromised conservatives are when it comes to their decision making skills.

it depends entirely on the context, what the software is, alternatives... etc

Only if they specifically seem fascist, because that's the one political group that likes to know everything you do and censor any dissenting opinion.

I mean... I used reiserFS for years and that guy killed his wife, I'm not too keen on that.

I guess its fine as long as its not actively malicious code, its not like I'm letting them into my brain.

On that though, I find it unlikely someone who differs from me politically would have the same priorities, and as such their projects are much less likely to show up on my radar.

Edit: spelling correction, Autocorrupt, ykwim?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReiserFS

Reiser was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, Nina Reiser

There's such different views on life that I don't think its possible to get software designed close to what you or I believe in.

If the source is open, the code is viewable. So yes I think I can trust, at least the code.

Also there's a saying "trust but verify". So actually check to see if the binaries your getting actually behave the way you think.

I'd see it as a seal of quality if the developer is a crank.

No. Fuck that guy.

I can't really apply "you don't understand the code yourself" because I do.

So I do check the code if it's something critical, but otherwise don't bother. For example the Lemmy server I'm running I didn't really check much because it can't really do any harm to me.

But if I was running Lemmy somewhere on my home network, I'd either isolate it or thoroughly check it (but probably just isolate it from the rest of the network and put it in a VM, nobody's got the time to read other people's source code).

Since you're asking specifically for "on my machine" I usually put stuff I don't fully trust in a VM.

for me, it generally boils down to "show me the work, then i decide".

some works are more influenced by politics like art pieces and written works. some, like architecture, plumbing and network stacks, much less so.

in this case, even if you don't know code but can be a good appraiser of political taint then you can decide on your own what to endorse or not.

I trust the Lemmy developers enough to use their platform hosted on external servers despite them being Marxist clowns, but I wouldn't self host without a thorough code review.

And I'm seriously just waiting for a decent piefed app in order to ditch the platform altogether. So far voyager is the most functionally complete one, but doesn't look very appealing.