September 9th, 2026
I want to start this off by saying I'm not a kernel developer, or a software developer professionally. I do work in IT, I have some self-taught coding experience, and I do care a lot about Linux as a project - particularly its community impact and messaging. Because that's what made me care about computers and software so much growing up.
I started using Ubuntu with version 10.04. Since then I've used a plethora of other Linux and BSD-based operating systems. I remember Ubuntu was how I learned what an "Operating System" even was, and why I should care. It was from organizations like Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, that I learned why I should care about where my software comes from. Much like how we're taught we should care about where our food comes from, something we interface with on a daily should be something that we at least somewhat know something about, right? "A curious mind is a healthy mind," or whatever.
So to read Linus saying "Fork it or walk away" when it comes to serious concerns regarding AI code, feels like a personal slap in the face for me, being someone who really believed in this project for over 15 years. I was that annoying kid who would tell people "You should try Linux because XYZ," and I didn't care because I genuinely believed the project was out to create a common good - to empower people through control of the tools they use every day.
Some will probably think "It's just software, it isn't that deep." And I couldn't disagree more. In fact, I'm sure the people who've given the Linux Foundation $133M dollars dollars directly (See Page 58 of their annual report) would also disagree that it "isn't that deep." That piece of messaging, "For people by people," or whatever your favorite flavor of that phrase is in this context, lifted Linux up as a moral high-ground in the software world. This project flipped the bird to the likes of Apple and Microsoft, who would make descisions that would actively hurt users on a regular basis. You can't tell me that "Linux isn't a social justice project" when you live in the west hills of Portland because your organization sold people on that promise. It doesn't matter if Linus buys that messaging or not, the people who have made the project what it is, do.
We know that AI is trained on stolen code. We've known that since Co-Pilot was first introduced. People whose projects were used as a training ground for these AI systems, without their direct consent, are having their code stolen and aren't making a dime off it. At first who cares, right? It's publicly accessible - if someone steals my code, whatever. But when the reality is also "Hey, this multi-billion dollar company who builds data centers the size of states made money on YOUR CODE, and didn't give you any of it!", suddenly it's a lot more frustrating, huh? Not to mention the environmental impacts of AI and data centers generally.
What am I getting at? What's the solution here? Well the title isn't clickbait - I think Linus Torvalds is a moron for this move and I'll die on that hill. And until someone does want to fork the Linux kernel and strip the AI code out of it, I'm sticking with OSes that don't use AI code. Haiku doesn't use AI code in their main operating system code, and the people who build apps for Haiku mark pretty clearly when they use AI, so I just don't use those tools. If you're wanting to avoid AI code in your life, I'd recommending staying away from Linux. That really sucks, because Linux was amazing and has made a huge impact on my life, but it's where I'm at today.
Do you think I'm overreacting? Do you think this is a bridge too far, and I should learn to accept code from our AI overlords? Or are you with me in this that AI code in Linux sucks and you want to avoid it too? Send me an email. No really, here it is. I want to hear from people on all sides of this aisle because a lot of my friends are a little detached from this issue (which honestly, good for them). Until then, I'm happy with my little Haiku install, and exploring the vast world of other operating systems out there. Regardless of your thoughts on this issue, there are a lot of projects doing a lot of amazing work similar-but-different to Linux that are worth exploring.
September 4th, 2026
I almost gave in. I ALMOST went back, and I'm really glad I didn't. In fact now, I've doubled down.
Some of you may have seen the thoughts post I had on here (though it was up for maybe two hours total) where I switched my computers over to Alma Linux, with the reasoning being an older version of the Linux kernel. But I stopped myself. It was running beautifully, everything I wanted worked, and I was bored as shit. Why? My novelty is gone. My whimsy! Gone!
This started because I'm having some problems running Haiku on my devices at home. I have pretty bog-standard Dell machines - I have an Optiplex 7010 and a Lattitude 3301. These are like, 2010s-ish machines at most, they're nothing to write home about in the slightest. I was trying to find some open source games I could play with my friends on either of these machines, and I was failing pretty hard. Not because I couldn't find any: but because of some graphics glitchy-ness with what are the best ones, in my opinion.
This happens with my devices in particular when I use graphics-focused apps as well. Sometimes, I'll be running something smaller like ArtPaint to edit a photo, and the photo editing screen will just stop updating. Like, I'm telling the app to "erase" something, and it just doesn't respond. It LOOKS like it's TRYING to update it, but the preview screen is just frozen. This isn't the only app that does this - I've gotten weird performance issues with SuperTuxKart, Warzone 2100, even OpenRCT2. Just enough graphical glitches to be unreliable for an extended play session with friends. Sometimes they're as simple as "Video is frozen, music is still going, app won't close" to full on crashing the desktop itself.
To be clear, I am NOT blaming anyone's work on this project for this. I have nowhere near the skills it takes to develop an operating system, let alone any drivers for one. It could also be something wrong with the ports themselves. I have no frame of reference because I don't know anyone else who uses Haiku, and I don't spend much time in the IRC chat. It's just an unfortunate reality for me specifically.
So I flirted with the idea of moving over to AlmaLinux because they have a "current" LTS that is running on kernel 5.14, which was made before AI contributions begun in the kernel. However, the more I thought about it, the more I couldn't shake this uncomfortable feeling that it was just wrong, I was giving up, and it sucked! I've really made a home for myself here on Haiku. I love the apps, I love the desktop itself, I love the weird quirks and bugs and stuff. I'm having fun learning an OS again, like I did with Linux. And I'm just not ready to let go of it, even with the miriad of problems I've been encountering.
"What about BSD?", maybe one of you asks. And for sure, any of the BSDs are pretty good options. Most have No-AI policies outright like NetBSD does. I tried for a solid three or four days to get things working on NetBSD and FreeBSD, but for some reason I can't get my hardware to work right. Like I'll get visuals working but my trackpad stops, or USBs aren't showing up like they should; mind you I was an Arch user for like 13 years (I'm trans, it's kind of an obligation I use Arch at some point). I'm used to config-file-fuckery, but I just felt like I was slamming my head into a wall. I'm willing to bet it's my hardware and NOT the fine folx who work on the BSDs I tried. I really hope to be able to try them in earnest some day: FreeBSD in particular has always been something I've wanted to get running outside of a virtual machine.
Short story long story short, I'm sticking with Haiku. In fact, my partner is considering moving their laptop from Linux Mint to Haiku, mostly because they do little to no gaming on it (we have a Nintendo Switch so that helps a lot), and all the productivity apps they need are on here. They're also starkly a "No-AI" person, a conclusion they came to without my outside influence even though they're not a dweeb about computers like myself.
Maybe this is because I don't love the idea of AI code being in anything I use. Maybe this is because I think Linus Torvalds is a moron for not realizing his operating system DOES benefit from an "agenda" standpoint, like it has for decades. Who's to say? For now, Haiku is my home and I'm getting some decorations put it.
August 22nd, 2026
I'm not going to pretend that I'm some kind of trendsetter, or that I'm immune to trends entirely. I was definitely a vicim of the "Emo Phase" many had in the 2000s, and some of those characteristics have stuck with me to this day. But call me surprised when I learned that social media has been having a bit of a moment with "Going Analog".
A lot of this appears to be taking place on Instagram and TikTok, two platforms I've had the pleasure of avoiding for the last two or three years. I've used them before though, so I'm familiar about how something like this spreads. You interact with one person's video on the topic, and suddenly every other video relates to that somehow. It seems the trend of "Analog Bags" has accompanied this wave of wanting for tech of the past. Some folx are calling it mindless consumerism with used goods, and others are applauding the intentionality of their choices.
I'm somewhere in the middle. While I'm sure many of the social media creators will not actually benefit from something like this (not to mention the irony that they're posting this on social media, when the point is to get away from it?), I'm sure that some people who saw this trend thought to themselves "Yeah, you know I actually could get by with a flip phone and a Walkman."
The nice part is, they're right! It's surprisingly possible in our modern age to disengage with modern technology and operate as if you've stepped back in time, at least mostly. It isn't without it's friction, which is where most people give up and go back to their smart phones. Myself included - I've tried this before, and the only reason I know it's going to stick this time is "Enshitification" and AI ruining the things I love.
There's a beautiful chapter written in an Assembly program called Ketman written by Pat Briody, that I would never have heard of if not for the YouTuber and brilliant mind Kay Lack. I won't write the whole quote, but to here's the sort-of abridged version:
"At this point, I calculate that I've dropped the dolphins. I mean those delightful aquatic clowns that latch onto any passing ship and race alongside, thumbing their noses at human technology. Travelling between Cape Town and London in the 1950s (I was a little boy then), I remember being mesmerised by their antics. In the early mornings the stiff breezes would heap the sea up into smoking crags, but they didn't mind that. Hour after hour they would slice trough the peaks and canyons and barel out into the sunlight, as if to show that they could waste as much energy as they liked with gratuitous acrobatics and still have enough left to outrun anything a shipyard could produce. They never got bored with their sport, only calling off the race when their extraordinary sonar detected another and more interesting ship ten miles away."
"But I digress. Like all authors, I get my share of compulsive ship-chasers, that myserious group of insomniacs who are hell-bent on trying out everything, and who inflate downoad counts to the point where you decive yourself into thinking that you might be popular."
Later he says: "...Don't quote me, but I think they're gone. My feeling is that I lost them several pages back with a ferocious burst of speed. And if you're still with me, it means you could be serious.
Do check out Kay's video here - it's a couple years old now but it's fantastic nonetheless.
The point I'm getting at is, at some point or another, every trend loses the dolhpins. And the ones that are serious, stick around. The ones who restore old Windows 98 PCs to their original glory, the ones who set up a Ham Radio station with ancient Linux software, the ones who write code in Assembly knowing modern languages really are awesome and do work great, but they do it for the love of the game. That's what this is, for me. I'm not "going analog" because of a shift in trend - I'm doing this because I love technology. The technology that shaped who I was as a child, and who I am now as a woman, should be celebrated and cherished, warts and all.
So feel free to get a laugh out of Instagram celebrities and YouTubers who tote this trend as the "Wave of the future" or a "Lifestye Hack", who then go back to posting about conflicting things later on. I know I will. Just understand that they are the dolphins. And if you're still here, it means you could be serious.
August 20th, 2026
Yes, I am unfortunately a Starlink customer. Yes yes, boo, hiss, I deserve it. Though I hope you'll allow me some context.
I live in a house with four people. Four of these people would prefer to have internet, as opposed to not having it. One person absolutely needs it, as they work a remote job. So after trying pretty much every 4G/5G option, and looking at Starlink's competitor's performance, we settled on Starlink.
We really debated this for a while between all of us in the house - not a single occupant here likes Elon, in fact quite the oposite. However, we can't afford to dig fiber lines, there's no way to get traditional broadband up our property, and the 4G/5G cellular offerings can't hold a video call worth a damn. If it were just web browsing, streaming, and some light gaming, we'd get by fine with just cellular. We just do a lot more than that.
What this highlights for me is a severe lack of options for those of us whose addresses have a state highway number in them. For people whose front door is pathed by a long gravel driveway. Before I slip into a shitty country song, let me get to my point: the necessary infrastructure that connects our modern world is just non-existent in these areas. This has been a problem long before the invention of Starlink, though now that it does exist it has created a new problem for the broader market.
Starlink is cheap, starting at around $60 and their top-tier home speeds costing around $120. That's close to what I was paying living in town, for something that beams internet straight to my house. That's NUTS. If you'd told me that was possible ten years ago, I'd have called you crazy. Now, this creates a weird sort of "socioeconomic" dynamic to home internet. I'd much rather run a fiber line up to our house so that I don't have to pay Elon any money, but my options are upwards of $20,000 just to get the damn line in place. After that, the monthly hookup is about the same cost. Why would I do that?
Who would bother? That's the problem. For someone in the consumer market, it makes absolutely zero sense. Outside of some rural small data center hosting situation, I really can't see a usecase. This is a huge problem that's creating a small, but very real monopoly on this desprate home internet market. It's enough of a selling point (and a driving force) that allows some deranged psycho to just control internet access to not just rural Americans, but other countries who use this as their means of communication with the outside world. And unfortunately, other than just trying to cut down on the needs of internet, there isn't much we can do. Right?
Well yes and no. What about self hosting options? For most people that's a huge barrier to entry. I've been self hosting for a long time, and I still have to look shit up constantly because I barely understand what's happening. Though it's worth noting the power of a local network. With a few PCs, I can have a very stable Jellyfin instance for movies and shows, automated home controls with Home Assistant, my own Wikipedia on a Raspberry Pi, play some local games with my partner or invite some friends over, all the while using WiFi technology in the progress. As long as it's not something that needs to go to the outside world, you can create your own little safe haven of "internet" in your household. Of course, like most things, it isn't perfect.
When using technologies like Haiku, Linux, or even other mainstream PC offerings, you run into the random "gotchas" that require even the smallest taste of the outside world. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a situation where "Oh, I just need to install this one driver for a new controller" or whatever, and I need a package that's literally only megabytes in size to do what I'm trying to do at the moment. That happens a lot less these days in fairness, but it still does happen. Or a service that's supposed to be "offline" requires some phone-home feature to start, which is happening MORE often.
Like in all things, knowledge is power. I unfortunately offer no turn-key solution to this problem, or I'd be raving about it. For now, my goal is going to be to minimize my need for my network to function outside of itself. I'll be posting in the "Technologies" section whenever I come across a technology that makes this more possible.