Z Space Blog

It seems that the systemd debate has made its way to Alpine Linux, and naturally that gets people out of the woodwork to bang their drum about it again. The irony's not lost, either. It's really tiring to see people complain about politics, in a software movement that's entirely about the politics of software to begin with. Have you guys forgotten why we're here? Are you more open source instead of free software? That's still a political statement; one of practicality and reduced costs.

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Hello once again, and welcome to another year of 12-in-12, the initiative to beat twelve games in twelve months and take out one's backlog! If you want a history lesson, check out my maiden post on the subject; then you'll get what's up here.

Just as before, here's the successful hit list for 2022:

• Dadish [Switch]
• A Short Hike [Switch]
• ToeJam & Earl [Genesis]
• Box Pusher [DSi]

That's it, unfortunately. Here's hoping for a better 2023! Read on for the details, as usual.

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I came home today and strolled my usual Web haunts before diving into the Underground, and stumbled across a piece by GNOME developer jwestman, titled Platforms, Compatibility, and the Future of the Free Desktop. In it, he advocates for GNOME (and by extension XDG) to become the platform that "everyone can work on together". Isn't it funny that the kind of people that suggest this are always talking about the platforms, software, or APIs that they have control over? Does this person not understand why people choose other software, or choose to create something different? Do they not understand the risks present when the vast majority of your userbase is on one or two platforms and a 0-day is found?

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The year is 2009. Square Enix releases a digital sequel to the long-loved Final Fantasy 4, titled "The After Years". It concerns the story of Ceodore -- the son of FF4's protagonist, Cecil -- and his journey in saving the world from a mysterious moon that appears. The After Years pulls in all of the characters from the prior game, extends character development and story for a lot of characters, and introduces more; most of them simply the progeny of some main character from the prior game. Fan bait!

I had recently 100%ed Final Fantasy 4 Advance, back around 2008, so naturally I bought its sequel! However, it was not quite what I expected. While the new characters were welcome, a lot of the changes to gameplay negatively impacted my experience for the entire game, despite my initial interest in them. This article isn't a review, per se, but I will briefly discuss what I didn't like about the game, to add context.

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Purism is a small company in the hardware space aiming to provide software freedom (via their Debian-based PureOS and coreboot-based Pureboot) while also protecting your privacy and security. One of the key selling points to their hardware are killswitches, which allow you to physically disconnect internal hardware to prevent abuse. The Librem 14 has two such switches: one controlling the webcam and microphone, and the other controlling the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios.

Due to COVID, supply shortages, and other difficulties of the business, Purism has had some trouble meeting their shipping obligations; this delay has caused a number of people to seek refunds or issue chargebacks. Backers for the Librem 5 in particular seem to have rough luck getting their hardware. I was a backer for the OpenPandora back in 2010, and never received a unit, so I understand their frustration when it comes to not getting what you pay for. ¹ I must note, however, that my experience with Purism was better than I anticipated.

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