On the Edge

I shouldn't have been surprised that the video I did about my leaving Firefox behind and starting to used Microsoft Edge created so much backlash among my subscriber base.

I haven't had a video that 'controversial', if I can use that term, since I made a video calling Linux Mint a 'Useless Distro'. 

But I was surprised. 

Apparently people care what browser I use? And if I don't use Firefox, I'm a traitor to the cause. It's a very odd thing.

It's gotten me thinking about this question: Can you be a FOSS advocate, a FOSS lover, if you will, and still be okay using some proprietary software? Or do you have to go all in? 

I don't know the answers to those questions, honestly. I think from a personal perspective, my main reason for using FOSS, isn't because it's FOSS, but because in most cases, I like FOSS software better and I think it works better. Linux specifically is just the best Operating System for me. There is no competition for my heart when it comes to which OS to use. 

I only use proprietary software when I have to. I have to have a browser that works. Brave has things that I don't like, and I'm not sure I trust them at all. Chromium and Ungoogled Chromium both have things that make them unusable for me. Vivaldi is a mess. Google Chrome isn't something I really want to use. So where do I go? Edge was really the only option. Qutebrowser was the only other one I considered, and I still may put more effort into getting that configured, but even then, it has limitations that I don't care for (lack of extensions being one). 

So do I feel guilty for not using Firefox or another FOSS browser? As a Youtube/FOSStuber, kind of. But mostly, I just want to get my work done, and right now, Edge is the way to go. If I can find a better, more open, way of getting my work done, then I will. Until then I'll keep using Edge.

And I'll keep pondering the rigidity of the FOSS community. To a lot of people, Proprietary automatically means bad/evil. I don't think that's true. Would I prefer if everything was free and open source? Sure. But that's not the world we live in, and sometimes the tools you need aren't free or open source. You do the best you can with the tools you are given.

Anyways, I hope everyone has a great week. Some really good vids coming up this week. I'll try to keep up with the Early access. You should get two or three this week as per usual.

Matt