that number 1 problem isn't a problem at all. the work is there, it may be continued by anyone else, and if people find value or interest in it odds are it will be. that is what open source is all about, power to the people.

what's wrong here are your expectations, and also your logic: you are asking from open source projects much stronger guarantees than closed source enterprises ever provided. we regularly get news here about startups closing or products getting discontinued and any users or customers being left in the cold.

to illustrate, i own a hp reverb g2 vr headset. it builds on windows' "mixed reality" runtime. microsoft is just about to discontinue that component and hewlett-packard already stated that they "can't" and won't have a substitute for it. those are all paid products, but that excellent and perfectly working piece of hardware is about to become a brick coming next windows update... unless someone reverse engineers or hacks that library and gets it to work. open source would actually be the best possible guarantee in this case, and likely the only viable alternative.

open source is okay, it's likely the best thing that has happened to software (and hardware) ever, has had a huge impact in general and doesn't need your endorsement or approval. just stay away from it if it's not to your liking for some reason. good luck with your dependable providers.

i am officially still a catholic. he was chosen because a soft and progressive figure was deemed necessary for the apparently dwindling popular support of the "happiness in your next life" corporation, specially after his predecessor, a really backwards and hardcore fundamentalist who was making matters worse by the day. it was a smart move which isn't really new, the catholic church has been steadily tailoring the discourse to be more friendly, not to mention rewriting the gospel for centuries, to keep up with the times and to keep the audiences. he was a good choice, apparently a simple and humble man, easy to become popular, latam for a change, he loved football, who had a soft voice and spoke of tolerance. i have really nothing against the man, but don't be fooled, this was all pr. e.g.: what did he actually do to contest or denounce the genocide in gaza, beyond bland and perversely equidistant discourses? equating it with residual antisemitism? i don't know if antisemitism is really on the rise, there is really no serious data on that but i don't think so, but i'm well aware that israel's public image is hitting rock bottom (for a reason), and israel's lobbies' massive media campaign to negate all criticism of israel's and zionists abroad actions by falsely labelling it antisemitism is on overdrive and then some, as is the unprecedented censorship in media, institutions, academia, governments and literally with crackdowns on the streets. with that equation he actually contributed to that status quo. imo that's just despickable. he for sure hasn't done palestinians any favor.

he wasn't a world leader, he migh have been surely seen as a spiritual leader for some, if you like, but he actually was just the next ceo of a big business in some serious long term trouble.

you're beating that dead horse to a pulp already. when lost in contradiction with imperfect law, try logic.

i get i can't create a computer line and call it "apple computers" because reasons, so you can be sure about who built your new comupter, but i can still use the word apple in any other context, specially if the context is about vegetables, fruits or desserts.

then again one guy registering the name "dev mode" for a function of his software and wanting everybody else to suddenly stop calling similar functions that have been around for ages on their software with the same generic term that describes that function is just asinine, an embarrassment for that guy and the whole system that made that nonsense possible.

i can't exactly, precisely because

- "dev mode" isn't "downloadable computer software" in the first place, it's a characteristic of any software or hardware
- it has no exact definition because... wait for it... it is a generic term

it's a mode of operation that enables acccess to advanced options or tools relevant to development or debugging. the exact description can vary wildly depending on the software's form, platform, content and purpose, but the term just describes that generic function and has long become common parlance in sofware-related contexts aswell as in user interfaces intended for the general public.

that bureaucracy is all nice and well unless if it ends up stamping trademarks on general language expressions, wich is clearly the case here.

there still seems to be plenty of room for improvement.

it is already a generic term. it should never had been registered as a trademark.

i told you it was biased:

i guess you still don't believe there was a negotiation, and will still opine about stuff you mostly ignore or are disinformed. good for you.

wise choice.

https://www.faz.net/aktuell/fe...

just a sample of the daily denial of us/israel's genocide in gaza (granted, i took the easy route) in die welt.

if we were to have a conversation i would very much welcome your different opinions and viewpoints but i definitely would expect you to know what you are talking about, and your claims to be based on something. e.g., you refuted a post by denying there was a deal. i told you that there indeed was one, and made the effort to describe the gist of it to you. you again denied there was any deal. alas there was one. you were not required to know about it, but instead of abstaining the first time or simply asking what that was about you bluntly denied the other person's statement (you actually asked but in a rhetorical way, and immediately went on disparaging), and then did the same again with me. at this point i'm afraid you still aren't any wiser about that deal. getting wiser is precisely the point of any discussion. the existence of that deal is a crucial piece of information to understand the issue of ukraine... and to be able to seriously opine about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

did you listen to jeffrey sachs' speech?

democracy, and freedom of speech for that matter, is useless if we can't have a clue. that was sort of my point, the media in your country is feeding you lies and fairly tales non stop, and you believe them, that much is cleat from your opinions. i don't blame you, most of the people in the west do. but we live in an age were access to information is easier than it ever, you just have to do some research on your own to get a clue and have at least some understanding of what happens in the world.

for example, you might want to listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

it mentions those negotiations, but the whole thing is worth watching.

btw, you asked for references. just google. wikipedia has a long and detailed article about it. it's quite biased imo, but at least it more or less enumerates the events. you can then compare their interpretation with other sources, for yourm own opinion, but at least you'll have a reasonable picture about the events themselves. another source is the "institute for the study of war" which extensively reports on the ukraine. this is a total western propaganda machine, created explicitly to set the narrative about ukraine, but i recommend it too (so you don't think i'm giving you "russian propaganda"). they skew most interpretations, but at least it's quality propaganda, in order to appear credible they are also quite rigurous with the actual events, chronolgies and the like, and provide sources, so you can compare that. to form your own interpretation you have to read from as many angles as you can.

what does that mean? i do not share your simple narrative of paladins and villains. putin is a head of state. states are complicated, dangerous beasts and you have to be a tough motherfucker to become a head of that, anywhere, unless you're a puppet. given his long and very impressive career in that function i'd presume he isn't a puppet. so he's a motherfucker. he has a dark side indeed, like all those other motherfuckers. i do not like him, i do not like motherfuckers, but the fact is that we are ruled by motherfuckers and by that measure i consider him among the handful best statesmen alive. i think he is very smart, very strategic and serious. compared to putin all previous statesmen in the us and most in europe in more than half a century (that's my lifetime) are just talking heads, puppets.

also, he hasn't enabled or carried out any genocide. that's saying something these days.

point in case. yet you feel entitled to repeat senseless slogans of "putin bad" and make bold claims as if you had any clue.

yes, that was before a western backed coup ousted the legitimate elected government, installed an interim puppet government (at which point russia seized crimea) which went on a nationalistic spree of discriminating cultural/ethnical russian ukrainians in the eastern/southern oblasts to the point of donetsk and luhansk seceeding, a civil war breaking out sponsored by cia and mi6 (yes, at that point russia supported the seccessionists), minsk agreements were signed and ignored (later admitted by merkel and hollande to be a ruse), troops being amassed on the northern border with the excuse of military exercises and an aegis missile base being projected 450km from moskow in range of a decapitation strike, and nato autistically claiming that nato membership was "irreversible".

they waited long enough.

well, in a few years/months time there will be no nato, so that will have to be... the "coalition of the willing"?... in about 10-15 years?

no, they aren't?

not anymore.

the donbas seceeded from ukraine and is now part of the russian federation. ironically, that's exactly why russia is not interested in a blanket "ceasefire" without agreeing on the security architecture and addressing the root causes first, which they have insisting on since 2022 and before. why would they? they're winning the war (against nato).

indeed, see georgia. how did that fare for them? georgia is a similar scenario except ukraine is a much more consequential issue with huge implications for the continent and arguably the whole planet. keep digging.

istanbul, march 2022. meaning 1 month after russian army crossed the border, which they called special military operation whose goal never was conquering ukraine but defuse the nato threat.

the negotiators were, for ukraine:
David Arakhamia – Head of the Ukrainian delegation, leader of President Zelenskyy's party in parliament.
Mykhailo Podolyak – Advisor to the President’s Office.

russia:
Vladimir Medinsky – Head of the Russian delegation, aide to President Putin.
Leonid Slutsky – Senior lawmaker.
Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin

among others. they reached a deal basically on
- ukrainian neutrality (no nato)
- ukraine free to join eu
- security guarantees from the west
- russian immediate withdrawal
- 15 year negotiation plan about crimea
- donbas status to be discussed separately

they did reach an agreement. as soon as uk/us found out they sent fucking boris johnson to talk zelensky out of it, with the hopes they could bog russia down (with ukranian blood), stimy them with sanctions and ultimately topple or fragment the russian federation and reap the spoils. worst decision ukraine ever made which will cost them dearly.

this all is publicly available information but ofc the fetid propaganda sewer you seem to bathe in never told you about it.

that's some really retarded fiction you live in.

dunno if fair, but understandable... if it were true. the number of incidents in the past five years is entirely normal, just look at the data. russia would have reason and means to sever all of them, they're just not that fucking stupid like, dunno, people who blow up pipelines or bomb tribal gatherings.

rumors planted by unnamed nato sources and brought to you by the telegraph, owned by lloyds bank: this is just globalist zionist propaganda. as usual fucking pathetic but still manages to rile up part of the gullible and clueless populace, of which slashdot has no shortage.

agreed on all counts, though i didn't mean pure gdp growth. gdp doesn't tell the whole story without looking at the composition and distribution, plus there's also debt, infrastructure, social cohesion and welfare, aswell as the relations with the rest of the world. there was a time where american values were highly respected, that respect is true leadership and has been slowly eroding aswell.

indeed, you can clearly tell them apart from their very unsame collars:-)