Introduction to the Fediverse
Social Time
Do you have to you give up your privacy to enjoy access to social media? The makers of the Fediverse say no.
As this magazine goes to press, Twitter has just announced that it is closing its API – a radical move that will limit access from outside applications. Some form of API access might be possible, if you pay for it, but as of now, the terms are unclear, and anyway, the move is likely to cause still more restlessness from the Linux community, who have never had much patience for closed APIs and are likely to abandon the platform in even greater numbers. Where will they go?
Social networking and the new generation of users who live on it have changed the Internet. Your thoughts, your experiences, your pictures, your politics – it all goes on the Internet now through your platform of choice: Life events on Facebook; links and short opinions on Twitter; videos on YouTube; photos on Instagram. The whole world is connected, but many users, including many who have never heard of Linux or free software, have already begun to ask whether it is all worth the price.
"What do you mean," the companies tell us. "Our services are all free." But it all depends on what you mean by free. Commercial social media services earn billions selling knowledge of their users' opinions and habits. To get on the site, you need to click a box that signs away your privacy and, in some cases, even signs away your ownership of your own words and images.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Fedora 45 Now Available
The latest iteration of Fedora has arrived with Gnome 51 and KDE Plasma 6.8.
-
Linux 7.4 is "Much Healthier" Thanks to AI
At nearly 42 million lines, Linux 7.4 is the largest merge in the kernel’s history.
-
Working Exploit for a Linux Kernel Flaw Made Public
Even before a bug received its CVE identifier or an upstream fix, the local privilege escalation vulnerability exploit found its way into the wild.
-
r/opensource Bans AI-Assisted and AI-Related Projects
The de facto subreddit for all things open source has not only banned AI-related projects but also users who "don't speak English."
-
Bottlenecks Discovered by Meta Engineers Lead to Scalability Improvements
Thanks to a small group of engineers at Meta, the Linux kernel module kernfs has been improved, which has led to some serious gains.
-
PwnEscape Poses VM Vulnerability
A guest-to-host escape flaw in Linux KVM, named PwnEscape, might be yet another means of attacking Linux.
-
Linux Mint 27 Set for a Christmas Release
The developers behind Linux Mint have announced a Christmas release, and it looks like Santa's sack will be brimming with features.
-
Is Linus Torvalds Vibe Coding?
The creator of Linux has added AI into his process for Linux kernel development, and it's more than just for debugging.
-
openKylin 3.0 Released with Expanded AI Integration
The latest release features a pre-installed AI agent to help perform tasks.
-
DigitalOcean Ends Open Source Credits Program
In a change that has surprised many open source developers, DigitalOcean has decided to sunset its Open Source Credits Program.