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Erik Moeller

Here's some of what that money will be used for:

- Improve the current state of accessibility
- Design and prototype a new accessibility stack
- Encrypt user home directories individually

Here's what it will not be used for:

- More reminders to use Edge as your default browser
- Clippy 2.0, now powered by a Large Language Model
- Microsoft Teams brain-computer interface

Sinking taxpayer funds into Microsoft's money pits has always been indefensible. Another world is possible & necessary.

20 comments
Erik Moeller

@despens don't worry there is no escape

clippy will find us all

c̸̯̉͋l̷̘͗̍i̷̭̘̚p̷̨̜̓p̵̞͗̐y̵̞̌ ̴̠̟̆̅l̴̤̜͝͝o̵͓͆̀v̸̮̅̐ȅ̶͔̩s̷̫͑̀ ̵̦̘͌͊ỵ̸̝̀o̵͎̒͠ū̸̩͗

Ryuno-Ki

@eloquence @despens Especially when we attempt to write a letter 🙈

lj·rk

@despens @eloquence I'm fine just using kakoune: kakoune.org/img/screenshots/ca :D

(Although I'd definitely install a GNOME Clippy extension)

Lien Rag

@eloquence

So, parts of the funded work will be possibly integrated in usable Desktop Environments ?

Erik Moeller

@lienrag

Can you clarify your question? Are you suggesting GNOME itself is not a usable desktop environment? :)

Lien Rag

@eloquence

Indeed, that's the core of my message.

(and I'm not THAT sectarian, I gave Gnome a try a few years ago)

I'm happy for the funding, I'm even trying to not be jealous that it went to the wrong project, but I hope that (and I'd like to know how much) this funding will benefit everyone and not serve to reinforce Gnome's hegemony.

Lien Rag

@eloquence

To make myself clear : I acknowledge the enormous design work that has been done by the Gnome team, and I admit that when what you want to do is what the Gnome team wanted you to do, it works very well.
But when you want to do anything your own way (on your own damn computer), then basically all hell breaks loose.

Erik Moeller

@lienrag

I generally like GNOME's design philosophy. A few times I have been annoyed at basic functionality being hidden and only accessible via command line config changes, which reminded me of editing the Windows registry back in the 1990s :). But I'm still overall very happy with it after 15+ years or so of use.

But regardless where you stand, some of the funding is in support of general open source desktop work, e.g., in the context of the FreeDesktop initiative.

Ryuno-Ki

@eloquence @lienrag GNOME sadly gained a reputation for being against people.

Like you write, features accessible via config changes.

I assume, changing design direction every so often.

I'm not arguing to spend grant money on this but to put it on the agenda for come together meetings (Guadec?).

Personally I need low hardware requirements and use AwesomeWM as daily driver (with Mate as alternative).

James Chip

@eloquence the good thing about gnome getting a good whack of cash to wotk on accessability is that some of that work might propogate out to otger DEs aswell.

Hopefully everyone benefits.

Sam Thurston :verified:

@eloquence

> Encrypt user home directories individually

Why though? This seems like a terrific way to make stuff unrecoverable.

Erik Moeller

@samthurston

I don't think that's necessarily the case, but I do agree of course that the recoverability story is really important for all encryption features, whether full-disk or home directory level. @sonny may be able to provide more detail on the specific goals.

Sonny

@eloquence @samthurston

Why encrypting home directory individually rather than say full disk encryption?

1. Keep users safe from each others
2. Improve the user experience and encourage adoption

The design team is looking at the options for recovery.

Sam Thurston :verified:

@sonny @eloquence is this a *desktop environment* level function though?

Will Thompson

@samthurston @sonny @eloquence the idea AIUI is to use systemd-homed. But you need desktop environment-level support so that you can set it up & recover in case of emergency without having to be able to operate a command line.

(Not my project, I'm just a spectator!)

Sam Thurston :verified:

@eloquence @sonny as an admin, if I want to protect users from each other I set appropriate permissions. As a user if I have data that needs to be protected from other users I encrypt it.

Landa

@samthurston most potential new users probably don’t have your skill and competence to
(a) know that anything needs protection at all
(b) decide what needs protection
(c) do it correctly

@eloquence @sonny

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