with love ❤️
you can find the free to use public license (fupl) on sourcehut:
http://git.sr.ht/~cregox/ahoxus/tree/main/item/license.txt
one link shows you the raw file directly, while the other leads to a page with a not-so-great mobile experience.
and here you can find the ahoxus 2024 manifesto, which offers more background on why fupl exists in the first place.
why use fupl?
because truly good software, the kind that respects your freedom and quality standards, needs specific legal safeguards. "open source" often does not work. fupl ensures that the software remains aligned with certain principles of openness, user respect, and long-term value. without the right license, software can drift into territories that ignore user rights or sacrifice quality.
looking for more context? check out stallman's manifestos on various popular apps, or browse this list of awesome software using agpl (gnu affero general public license). if you're unfamiliar with agpl, here's a starting point.
below i list my personal, subjective ranking of software and services, scored from 0 to 100, where 100 represents the ideal. the criteria are based on my own preferences and perceptions of how well each tool respects user freedom, privacy, and overall quality. it's obviously biased and unscientific, but it shows how i see the broader ecosystem:
98 http
97 lichess
96 fediverse
95 archive.org
91 gnu things
90 delta chat
89 organic maps
86 termux
85 kiwi
84 fdroid
80 brave
79 android
78 presearch
70 telegram*
10 whatsapp
60 duckduck
40 google maps*
20 tiktok*
15 youtube
5 chatgpt*
3 microsoft
2 google
1 apple
0 windows
i personally try to stick with everything above 77 in my daily use. unfortunately, i still rely too much on the four items marked with an asterisk (telegram, google maps, tiktok, chatgpt). each of these tools offers some convenience or unique features that keep pulling me back, despite their lower scores. it's tough to break free from tools under 20, as they're often designed to be addictive or indispensable in some way.
then there's windows, a complete mystery to me. why do so many people knowingly choose it? i ditched it back in 2008, and even then ubuntu could already serve all my needs, including good games. windows ux was never, ever good.
bleh.
who cares?