Episode notes
In this episode, I deviate from dictating my blog posts and instead interview a friend of mine, Mark Wyner, to begin a series of episodes on free open source software (FOSS), specifically in this case, the FOSS that provides me a tolerable social media network called Mastodon, an instance of which Mark volunteers to moderate.
In this episode, we introduce FOSS, go into some of the more nuanced thoughts we have about the distinctions between "free software" and "open source" software, explain things like the Fediverse, decentralised social networks, Mastodon in particular, and what it's like to be a moderator on an instance of Mastodon.
Note: I have done more research about the history of the "open source" term in some contexts being used synonymously with "free" and want to be clear that I no longer think this was a politically smart ...