High treason, I'm afraid. You'll swing for that.

producers of digital data

They have an interesting take. What if they tax Sony for HBO streaming Spider-Man? What if it's EMG for spotify tracks? almost impossible to track.

I think they're more concerned about Github... but that follows.

What if I carry a pen drive of software across the border and give it to a frenchman. will that incur a fee.

I can't speak to how long it takes as i usually just set my phone down on the charger when i get home and walk away. I've got static IPs for desktop, proper vlans configured. It works over a vpn as well because I've used it to find my phone several times when the Wi-Fi was off (vpn auto connects).

XigmaNAS is a cool project. Branched off TrueNAS a long time ago and is mostly FreeBSD with extra bits. Unfortunately the update schedule is a bit slow and they aren't keeping up with the latest versions.

I think at this point it would be best to just release the XigmaNAS web gui and tools as packages for FreeBSD.

I liked how easy it was to configure as a USB boot to RAM embedded OS. But I moved to FreeBSD 15.1 to not be using an EOL FreeBSD 14.3 system.

Very cool! I hope there will be a space for those of us that want to enjoy computing as a craft, who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and a space for innovation without LLMs or at the very least limited LLM will continue to exist.

A guy can dream.

It'll stay connected to both laptop and desktop at the same time without issues? Does it auto-reconnect quickly when coming back onto your wifi from mobile data too?

Maybe I need to give it another try..

XigmaNAS

LOL. About two years ago TrueNAS the company abandoned FreeBSD as a base along with the "Core" branch altogether and embraced Debian. They prompted me to "upgrade" to their Linux based new version and I was like, "F no, I'll keep my TrueNAS old version till the end of the world, or jump ship to XigmaNAS!"

I don't like the tone of this author belittling NetBSD in order to promote AlpineBSD.

It's not hard to install. If someone can install Arch Linux, they can install NetBSD. All they have to do is read the text on the screen and make choices.

pkgin is optional. Who's fault is that?

...and when we tried NetBSD 9.3 four years ago, we didn't know that, overlooked that checkbox, and had to find a way to add pkgin later.

These laws are proposed not by the politicians themselves (they indeed don't understand technology) but by the capitalists that own them

I don't understand. So, if VLC was downloaded from Tucows or GitHub...who pays? Surely not VLC, because as I read it, this taxes "producers of digital data" but the measurement mechanism is ISPs counting bytes by sender IP.

So if a French user downloads VLC from Tucows, Sourceforge, or Akamai's CDN, the bytes come from Tucows/Akamai's IP, not VideoLAN's. Under a strict sender-IP reading, Tucows pays, not VideoLAN.

Wat?

If in some crazy world this actually goes ahead as written, one of two things happen

1. Everyone on earth geoblocks French IPs
2. Everyone dumps everything onto mirrors and washes their hands of it.

It CAN be made quite sleek if configured well on good server hardware.

It does have a lot of issues, but a lot of it is stuff that causes more headaches for the admins than the users.

Which is to say, when run by a competent admin, it's great.

You'd be surprised how easy they are to use. Most are just "next" simulators when it comes to the install.

They are geared mostly to server use, so not much attention is given to spinning up a DE quickly, but even OpenBSD gets a window manager up with a few checked boxes in the install. I think there's a package you can get on FreeBSD that is just an install script to setup a Gnome/KDE/XFCE/wtv environment in just a few prompts. I believe GhostBSD is meant to be the desktop one with the gui and easy to use installer.

I found all three BSDs Ive used easier to setup than Debian, for reference. Things make logical sense and are fundamentally really simple. Way simpler than Linux in general.

The people who work in the BSDs have genuine love and passion for software. There are different philosophies to each, but they are so focused in ways you won't see with broader linux projects. They are a great contribution.

-I've used FreeBSD and XigmaNAS for my NAS. Would choose over Linux any day.

-I'm going to spin up NetBSD for my Dreamcast. Maybe some other really vintage gear.

-I run OpenBSD on an old 32 bit netbook, because it still comfortably supports 32 bit systems. Linux 32 bit support is inconsistent.

this is very good news. I had tried Nextcloud several years ago as a self host and it seemed quite clunky and unfinished. I guess things have moved on if its ready for org use!

I am using kde connect between a bazzite (desktop) install and a cachy (laptop) and my phone perfectly for the last year Id say. Music control, sending files and timer/alarm status (great for grilling/smoking/baking etc) all working.

It did used to suck bad though. Like really bad lol.

tru

Enjoy your cuck licensed software purists!

No, that just takes us back around to windows...

By how it's formulated it sounds extremely airtight. Resuts may will differ in any application.

(Although part of me feels like reverse-engineering binary blobs might in fact be a valid use case for LLM's)

Except the resulting packages would no longer be allowed in AlpineBSD.

They currently dodge taxes by transferring all benefits to the country with the lowest tax rate within the EU: Ireland. It's easy, you just have the Irish branch charging bullshit fees to other entities that match their revenues.

Besides that

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/11/france-passes-digital-tax-on-us-tech-firms-despite-trade-threat.html

But this previous tax was largely criticized for being ineffective against big tech also. Given it didn't work that well, this one is the next attempt.

One day, one can hope, they'll ask a tax expert instead of their guts… or asses…

Anything to avoid making the actual problems pay their share of taxes. Now they can write the whole thing off as a failure and allow these other companies to continue paying the bare minimum.

Why not just charge a subscription tax? 🤔

This is like fucking link taxes again. What this will do is make it harder for new companies to complete with established players

If you want shit you gotta pay taxes, such is life